Chinese Blackbird Turdus mandarinus Scientific name definitions
Text last updated June 20, 2018
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Species names in all available languages
Language | Common name |
---|---|
Catalan | merla de la Xina |
Chinese | 中國黑鶇 |
Chinese (Hong Kong SAR China) | 烏鶇 |
Chinese (SIM) | 乌鸫 |
Croatian | kineski kos |
Dutch | Chinese merel |
English | Chinese Blackbird |
English (United States) | Chinese Blackbird |
French | Merle de Chine |
French (Canada) | Merle de Chine |
German | Mandarinamsel |
Japanese | クロウタドリ |
Korean | 대륙검은지빠귀 |
Norwegian | mandarintrost |
Polish | drozd okopcony |
Russian | Китайский черный дрозд |
Serbian | Kineski kos |
Slovak | drozd mandarínsky |
Spanish | Mirlo Mandarín |
Spanish (Spain) | Mirlo mandarín |
Swedish | kinesisk koltrast |
Thai | นกเดินดงสีดำ |
Turkish | Mandarin Karatavuğu |
Ukrainian | Дрізд мандаринський |
Turdus mandarinus Bonaparte, 1850
Definitions
- TURDUS
- turdus
- mandarina / mandarinus
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Field Identification
28–29 cm. A large, all-dark thrush. Male nominate race is all sooty black above and brownish-black below, with narrow orange-yellow eyering; iris dark; bill orange to bright yellow; legs blackish to dark brown. Female is only slightly browner than male, has paler chin and throat with broad darker streaks, less distinct eyering; bill brownish, some dull yellow at base (mainly on lower mandible). Juvenile is dark brown with variable paler buff mottling and streaking. Race sowerbyi is smaller and is darker below than nominate.
Systematics History
Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.
Until recently considered conspecific with T. merula and formerly with T. maximus and T. simillimus, but in fact belongs in a separate clade (1) and differs (including from race intermedius, which was said in HBW to belong with present species but aligns vocally and genetically with T. merula) in its shade paler plumage in male (1); shade darker plumage in female (1); much broader streaks on throat in female (2); distinctly deeper bill (at least 1); and strikingly different voice including, in song, much larger number of repeated notes per phrase (at least 2) and lack of high-pitched ending (at least 2) (2). Two subspecies recognized.Subspecies
Turdus mandarinus sowerbyi Scientific name definitions
Distribution
Turdus mandarinus sowerbyi Deignan, 1951
Definitions
- TURDUS
- turdus
- mandarina / mandarinus
- sowerbii / sowerbyi
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Turdus mandarinus mandarinus Scientific name definitions
Distribution
Turdus mandarinus mandarinus Bonaparte, 1850
Definitions
- TURDUS
- turdus
- mandarina / mandarinus
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Distribution
Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.
Habitat
Migration Overview
Partially migratory. Some N breeders winter S of breeding range; present around Hong Kong in winter mainly mid-Nov to Mar, with peak numbers mid-Nov to early Dec. A scarce to common winter visitor to N Laos and N Vietnam, also Hainan I, singly or in small groups. Scarce to rare passage migrant in Taiwan. Has occurred as a vagrant in Japan (including Ryukyu Is) and Korea, and recently in W Philippines (Palawan) (3).
Diet and Foraging
Invertebrates, especially earthworms and adult and larval insects; also seeds, berries and fruits; occasionally catches and eats small vertebrates. Stomachs of 94 birds taken over a year in Fujian always held 50–80% invertebrates, very largely insects, with a few snails and worms; insect food mainly larvae of flies, beetles and lepidopterans, also adult beetles and ants, with plant material mainly fruits of Cinnamomum camphora and Ficus wightiana but also other fruits and grass seeds; mulberries (Morus) and banyan berries (Ficus) also reported. In Hunan, autumn and winter, primary food plants, e.g. fruits of Rubus and Cinnamomum, with animal food mainly fly larvae, mole-crickets and earthworms, along with grasshoppers, dragonflies, lepidopterans, hymenopterans, snails and small frogs. Forages mostly on ground , where it turns and tosses leaf litter and uproots moss by flipping bill sideways; on grass it makes short runs with frequent pauses, listening and watching for prey, then stabbing at ground to secure it. Commonly feeds also in trees and bushes, primarily when seeking fruits and berries.
Sounds and Vocal Behavior
Male's Song , delivered from elevated perch, is a melodious series of repetitive fluted whistles, e.g. “piew-piew” and “tiew-quoit”, each strophe maintaining a single pitch and without the high-pitched ending typical of T. merula. Calls include short “sri” in flight and perched, and longer “s’r’r’r’r” in flight; persistent loud nasal “twink twink twink twink…” during territorial disputes; very high-pitched, long-drawn, slightly descending “siiiiiiiiii”, frequently repeated in breeding season as warning of aerial predator and when ground predator near nest; also various other calls, all much as those of T. merula.
Breeding
Season Mar–Jul; up to two or three broods per year. Nest a large cup of dry grass and twigs packed together wth mud, lined with finer vegetable material (grass, stems), placed 0·5 m or more off ground in bush or tree, sometimes in or on wall. Clutch 2–6 eggs, pale greenish-blue with pale red-brown spots; incubation period variable, 10–19 days; nestling period 13–14 days; chicks dependent on parents for a further c. 20 days.
Conservation Status
Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Generally common in most of its range; also a common winter visitor and passage migrant in Hong Kong. This species has a very large range, within which its population, although not yet quantified, appears to be increasing.
- Year-round
- Migration
- Breeding
- Non-Breeding