Pale-eyed Thrush Turdus leucops Scientific name definitions

The Pale-eyed Thrush is a remarkable dichromatic species. Both sexes differ noticeably in plumage coloration. Males are entirely glossy bluish-black, with obvious pale eyes and a yellow or orange bill and legs. Females are dark olive-brown, slightly paler on the underparts, with pale gray-brown eyes, a dark bill, and dull yellow legs. The species is a South American resident, inhabiting the most humid and wet montane forest associations, especially mossy cloud forests along montane Andean regions where it is rare to locally common. This thrush can be found in northern, western, and southeastern Venezuela, northern Brazil, and southern Colombia to northern Bolivia. Although considered sedentary, the Pale-eyed Thrush probably makes some local movements. Typically seen as single individuals, it can also be observed in pairs and less frequently in small family groups (3–4 individuals). It also congregates in large groups (5–24 individuals) in fruiting trees or during its local migratory movements. It is shy and difficult to see. It is mainly arboreal, more frequently in the forest's middle (subcanopy) and upper (canopy) strata, but usually visits the understory. Highly frugivorous, it also consumes several arthropod species. It is an excellent songster and often mimics other bird species, even insects and frogs, mixing their sounds within its song. It usually nests (>80%) in trees, typically in a shallow cup-shaped nest built with vegetable fibers, lined externally with mosses, and without mud. Its two eggs (rarely one) are olive green to light blue with brown to red-brown blotches. Only the females incubate for 13–15 days. Nestlings are altricial, born completely naked, without natal down (neossoptiles), and with eyes closed. The nestlings fledge when 17–19 days old. The Pale-eyed Thrush is classified as Least Concern, but the degradation and loss of habitat due to fire, local logging, and agriculture activities are likely the most important threats to this species.