The Brown-headed Thrush is an East Asian thrush with bright orange flanks and a white belly. It breeds in Japan, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands and winters south to Taiwan, southern China, and the northern Philippines. It is not a bird you can expect to see in the United States.
Appearance
- Appearance
- About 9 in (23–24 cm) long. Olive-brown above with extensive orange flanks and a white belly. Males have a dark grayish face and throat and a lot of yellow at the base of the bill; females are duller, with a pale, dark-streaked throat.
- Voice
- Its call drops sharply in pitch and ends abruptly. In Japan, males sing a trilling, three-part song in spring, often starting before dawn.
Look-alikes
American RobinTurdus migratorius
An American Robin has a gray to blackish head with broken white eye-rings and a reddish-orange breast across the whole front. A Brown-headed Thrush has no white eye-rings, an olive-brown back, and orange mostly on the flanks around a white belly.
Why they get mixed upBoth are robin-sized Turdus thrushes with orange underparts.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Forests
- Forest edges
- Wooded parks
- Range
- Breeds in northern and central Japan, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands. Winters in southern Japan, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, southeastern China, Hainan, and the northern Philippines.
- Seasonal presence
- A full migrant. On its wintering grounds, such as Hong Kong, it is spread thinly through woodland and is easy to miss.
Behavior
- Diet
- Forages on the forest floor for insects and earthworms, and visits fruiting trees in fall and winter.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- LCLeast ConcernLow risk of extinction
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