Grey-cheeked Thrush (Catharus minimus) Science Article 2 abstract Gray-cheeked Thrush and Bicknell’s Thrush were once considered to be conspecific (AOU 1957). Recently, they have been split into two distinct species (AOU 1998) – Bicknell’s Thrush (C. bicknelli), breeding in the Maritime provinces and New England, and Gray-cheeked Thrush, breeding in Newfoundland, the Labrador Peninsula, and […]
Category: Turdidae
Nest defence strategies in the Fieldfare Turdus pilaris: the responses on an avian and a mammalian predator.
Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) Science Article 1 abstract The Fieldfare Turdus pilaris, a medium-sized passerine, is aggressive in nest defence and its use of f ces may be detrimental to avian but not to mammalian predators. The birds breed either solitarily or in colonies, the nesting pattern in subalpine forests is apparently dependent on the abundance […]
Colonial and single breeding in fieldfares, Turdus pilaris L.:a comparison of nesting success in early and late broods
Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) Science Article 2 abstract Pairs of fieldfares breed singly or in colonies. Their breeding season was subdivided into an early part, when the trees were still leafless, and a late part, when the trees had leaves. Early colonial pairs had a significantly higher nesting success than single pairs. However, amongst late broods […]
Effects of fat reserves on annual apparent survival of blackbirds Turdus merula
Blackbird (Turdus merula) Science Article 5 abstract Fat reserves are stored energy that may help birds survive periods of harsh winter weather. This hypothesis predicts that annual apparent survival is higher for birds with large fat reserves than for birds with few or no fat reserves in winter. Blackbirds (Turdus merula Linnaeus) were ringed in […]
The effect of nest-height on the seasonal pattern of breeding success in Blackbirds Turdus merula
Blackbird (Turdus merula) Science Article 3 abstract An urban Blackbird Turdus merula population was studied in Budapest from 1986 to 1989. Seasonal pattern of breeding success was similar in three out of the four years: early nests were successful then the success rapidly fell, reaching another maximum in the third part of the breeding season, […]
Body mass change strategies in blackbirds Turdus merula: the starvation-predation risk trade-off
Blackbird (Turdus merula) Science Article 4 abstract It is theoretically well established that body mass in birds is the consequence of a trade-off between starvation risk and predation risk. There are, however, no studies of mass variation from sufficiently large wild populations to model in detail the range of diurnal and seasonal mass change patterns […]
Is urbanisation of European blackbirds (Turdus merula) associated with genetic differentiation?
Blackbird (Turdus merula) Science Article 2 abstract Because of the extreme ecological and environmental changes along an urban-rural gradient, it has been proposed that urbanised and non-urbanised populations of the same species may be distinctly isolated. There is evidence that urban populations have become significantly different from the original forest populations in several aspects. However, […]
Recruitment patterns of Blackbirds (Turdus merula) in urban fragmented populations
Blackbird (Turdus merula) Science Article 1 abstract The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of habitat fragmentation on Blackbird Turdus merula recruitment in 21 urban parks in the city of Madrid (Spain) during two consecutive breeding seasons (1997-98). We found that: (1) recruitment did not vary between years, showing high levels of […]
Bay Thrush (Turdus ulietensis)
The story This is another of those species known today only from a painting by Georg Forster. This painting, now in the Forster portfolio at the Natural History Museum, London, was produced on 1st June 1774 at Raiatea in the South Pacific, and according to an inscription it shows a female. Although no actual specimen […]
Grand Cayman Thrush (Turdus ravidus)
The story The Grand Cayman Thrush became extinct towards the middle of the twentieth century, but considering the comparative lateness of this date very little is known of it. One of the few things on record is a description of its song, which was apparently rather weak and hesitant, more, perhaps, a subdued warbling than […]