Catharus mug shots

In the field, spotted Catharus thrushes can sometimes be challenging to identify, especially when the bird is unwilling to allow more than a furtive glance through dense cover. Here at the Tortuguero CCC bird banding station in Costa Rica, these thrushes (especially Swainson's Thrush) are the bread and butter of the banding station this time of year. In the hand, they are surprisingly easy to identify.

I get lots of Swainson's Thrushes (I banded about 30 individuals of this species yesterday morning), some Gray-cheeked Thrushes, and an occasional Veery. Hermit Thrush doesn't come down this far, it winters in the southern and eastern United States, Mexico, Guatemala and western El Salvador. Bicknell's Thrush winters in the Greater Antilles.

At the top, a Swainson's Thrush (left) and Veery (right). Note the difference in tone color and eye ring.

Here, the same duo from above. Even then it is easy to tell which is which.

Here another duo. Our reference bird, the warmer, eye-ringed Swainson's Thrush in back, the colder Gray-cheeked Thrush in front.

Side by side, the differences between these three species are substantial, and immediately obvious.

Mini-wave of Gray-cheeked Thrushes

As my regular blog readers know, I've just started bird banding in Tortuguero, right on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica last week. Today we had an early-morning mini-wave of Gray-cheeked Thrushes. We had five graycheeks in the first two net runs, then two more plus a recapture later in the morning.



















According to Stiles & Skutch (1989), Gray-cheeked Thrush is a "very uncommon fall migrant (early October - mid-November), mainly on Caribbean slope and to ca. 5000ft (1500m) in central highlands". I suspect that the species' secretive habits obscure its actual presence, although they are certainly less common than Swainson's Thrush, which even today eventually outnumbered it.



















The bird shown here was caught a few days ago.

Cited literature:
Stiles, F. G. and A. F. Skutch. 1989. A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Cornell Univ. Press, Ithaca, NY.