African Wildlife Environment Issue 75 FINAL

BIRDING

A confusion of THRUSHES

Thrushes belong to a large family of smaller birds that include chats, wheatears and robin-chats. Twelve species of the Turdidae family of thrushes occur in Africa. European Starlings and Indian Mynahs are similar in size, but mostly quite different in behaviour. There are many instances of the local African species being shot by the reckless and the uninformed, mistaking them for the two introduced exotic birds.

John Wesson

Juvenile Karoo Thrush (Photograph: Albert Froneman)

The Karoo Thrush

I n Southern Africa, we have three species of thrush that look and behave in quite similar ways. Until a few years back, we had only two thrush species in South Africa, namely the Kurrichane and Olive Thrush. Then a decision was made to split the Olive Thrush into the Olive Thrush (with six described races) and the Karoo Thrush. The smallest race of the Olive Thrush, with paler orange on lower breast and belly. is found in the Eastern highlands of Zimbabwe. There are also five recognised races of the Kurrichane Thrush. This has led to much confusion among birders over the years, so let’s see if we can dispel this confusion and show readers the clear distinction

between the three species, namely the Olive Turdus olivaceus , Karoo T. smithii and Kurrichane T. libonyana thrushes, and thereby have a simple but reliable way of identification. Let’s have a look at the illustrations The Olive Thrush has a distinct yellow bill with a black mark\’smudge’ on top of the upper mandible, whereas the Karoo has a clear yellow bill to light orange, no smudge and the Kurrichane has an orange bill.

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