GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH

The 'Gray-cheeked Thrush', ''Catharus minimus'', is a medium-sized thrush. This species is 15-17 cm in length, and has the white-dark-white underwing patterm characteristic of ''Catharus'' thrushes. It is a member of a close-knit group of migrant species together with the Veery and Bicknell's Thrush (Winker & Pruett, 2006); it forms a cryptic species pair with the latter. The Gray-cheeked Thrush is all but indistinguishable from Bicknell's Thrush except by its slightly larger size and the two were formerly considered conspecific.
Adults are olive-brown on the upperparts. The underparts are white with gray on the flanks; the breast is greyish brown with darker spots. They have pink legs and a faint grey eye ring. They have gray cheeks.
Their breeding habitat is the northern spruce forests across northern Canada and Alaska. They make a cup nest in a low location on a conifer or on the ground at the base of a shrub.
These birds migrate to northern South America. This species is a rare vagrant to Europe. Its northerly breeding range and long-distance migration make it one of the more regular North American passerine migrants to cross the Atlantic.
They forage on the forest floor, mainly eating insects and berries.
This bird's song is a distant-sounding series of flute-like tones rising then falling in pitch. Like Bicknell's Thrush, they are very secretive during the nesting season.

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References

External links

References

★ Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern

★ 'Winker', Kevin & 'Pruett', Christin L. (2006): Seasonal migration, speciation, and morphological convergence in the avian genus ''Catharus'' (Turdidae). ''Auk'' '123'(4): 1052-1068. [Article in English with Spanish abstract] DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2006)123[1052:SMSAMC]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract

External links

★ Gray-cheeked Thrush - ''Catharus minimus'' - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter

★ Gray-cheeked Thrush Species Account - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

★ Gray-cheeked Thrush Information - South Dakota Birds and Birding