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{{Short description|Species of bird}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Speciesbox
| image = Africanthrush.jpg
| image_caption= [[File:African Thrush (Turdus pelios) (022A-WA03044X0015-0017M0).ogg|thumb|center|Song recorded near [[Kitale]], Kenya]]
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| status_ref = <ref name="iucn status 12 November 2021">{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2016 |title=''Turdus pelios'' |volume=2016 |article-number=e.T22708702A94172703 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22708702A94172703.en |access-date=November 12, 2021}}</ref>
| taxon = Turdus pelios
| authority = [[Charles Lucien Bonaparte|Bonaparte]], 1850<ref name = ITIS>{{cite web | url = https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=563603#null | title = ''Turdus pelios'' Bonaparte 1850 | access-date = November 8, 2016 | publisher = Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS)}}</ref>

}}

The '''African thrush''' or '''West African thrush''' ('''''Turdus pelios''''') is a [[passerine]] [[bird]] in the [[thrush (bird)|thrush]] family Turdidae. It is common in well-wooded areas over much of the western part of sub-[[Sahara]]n [[Africa]], it was once considered to be conspecific with the [[olive thrush]] but that species has now been split further. Populations are resident (non-[[Bird migration|migratory]]).

==Description==
The African Thrush has dark olive-grey upperparts. The underparts show a whitish evenly brown- streaked side throat, the breast is greyish brown and the flanks are pale buff-orange with this colour not extending on to the lower breast, the belly and vent are white. It has a yellow-orange bill.<ref name = "Uganda Birding">{{cite web | url = http://www.africa-uganda-business-travel-guide.com/Uganda---Birding--_Safari.html | title = The African Thrush | access-date = November 8, 2016 | publisher = Africa-Uganda-Business-Travel-Guide.com|work = Uganda Birding Safari Guide}}</ref> It weighs {{Convert|46–78|g|oz|abbr=on}} and measures {{Convert|21–23|cm|in|abbr=on}} in length.<ref name = HBW>{{cite web | url = http://www.hbw.com/species/african-thrush-turdus-pelios | title = African Thrush (''Turdus pelios'') | access-date = November 8, 2016 | publisher = Lynx Edicions|work = Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive}}</ref>

===Voice===
The song of the African thrush is a sustained, clear warbling made up of different phrases repeated rather randomly in a sequence. Also a high-pitched squealing flight call.<ref name = Barlow>{{cite book| last1 =Barlow | first1 = Clive | last2 = Wacher | first2 = Tim | last3 = Disley | first3 = Tony | year = 1997 | title = A Field Guide to the Birds of The Gambia and Senegal | publisher = Pica Press | ISBN = 1-873403-32-1 | page = 297}}</ref>

==Distribution==
The African thrush is distributed from [[Senegal]] and [[Gambia]] in the west to [[South Sudan]], [[Uganda]], [[Ethiopia]] and [[Eritrea]] south to northwestern [[Zambia]] and western [[Angola]].<ref name = Avibase>{{cite web | url = http://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/species.jsp?avibaseid=40A2405D8F570AE9 | title = African Thrush ''Turdus pelios'' Bonaparte, 1850 | access-date = November 8, 2016 | publisher = Denis Lepage|work = Avibase}}</ref>

==Habitat==
The African thrush can be found in all sorts of wooded habitats including forest edge, riparian woodland, scrub cultivation, parks and gardens.<ref name = HBW/>

==Habits==
The African thrush is normally encountered either singly or in pairs and is shy and retiring, preferring to remain in cover, but will come out and gather at fruiting trees. Usually forages in the ground, flicking [[leaf litter]] and searching through vegetation. Where undisturbed or habituated to people will feed out in the open in a similar fashion to the [[song thrush]] in Europe, and it is also reported to crack open snails on an anvil stone like a song thrush. Foraging is crepuscular and fruit, especially that of the nim ''[[Azadarichta indica]]'', as well as [[Common fig|figs]], [[papaya]], [[berries]] and seeds, makes up most of the diet supplemented with invertebrates and the occasional small fish.<ref name = Thrushes>{{cite book | last1 = Clement | first1 = Peter | last2 = Hathway | first2 = Ren | last3 = Byers | first3 = Clive | last4 = Wiczur | first4 = Jan | year = 2000 | title = Thrushes | publisher = Christopher Helm | pages= 326–329 | ISBN = 0-7136-3940-7}}</ref>
[[File:Flickr - Rainbirder - African Thrush (Turdus pelios).jpg|thumb|left|African Thrush]]
Breeding is recorded in all months, but breeding activity peaks in the wet season, which is March to September or October in West Africa, April–July in Ethiopia and November to March in the rest of its range. The nest is cup shaped and bulky and is constructed using plant fibres and mud lined with fine grasses, leaves and roots. This nest is placed on a horizontal branch, in a tree fork or among vines, usually at a height lower than 10 m from the ground. It may re-use the abandoned nest of another species. The female is responsible for incubating the normal clutch of 2–3 eggs; both sexes feed the young. It is double brooded.<ref name = Thrushes/>

==Taxonomy==
The African thrush may be part of a [[superspecies]] with the [[Kurrichane thrush]] and the [[bare-eyed thrush]],<ref name = HBW/> and some [[subspecies]] of African thrush (''T.p. poensis'', ''T.p.nigrilorum'', ''T.p. centralis'' and ''T.p. chinguanicoides'') have been considered subspecies of [[olive thrush]].<ref name = Thrushes/>

The currently recognised subspecies and their distributions are:<ref name = ITIS/><ref name = HBW/>

*''Turdus pelios chiguancoides'' Seebohm, 1881: Senegal east to northern [[Ghana]].
*''Turdus pelios saturatus'' (Cabanis, 1882): west Ghana east to central [[Cameroon]], western [[Republic of Congo|Congo]] and [[Gabon]].
*''Turdus pelios nigrilorum'' Reichenow, 1892: [[Mount Cameroon]].
*''Turdus pelios poensis'' Alexander, 1903: [[Bioko]] (formerly Fernando Póo).
*''Turdus pelios pelios'' Bonaparte, 1850: eastern Cameroon east to South Sudan, western Eritrea and western, central and eastern Ethiopia.
*''Turdus pelios centralis'' Reichenow, 1905: eastern Congo and southern [[Central African Republic]] east to southern Ethiopia, western [[Kenya]] and north-western [[Tanzania]].
*''Turdus pelios bocagei'' (Cabanis, 1882): western [[Democratic Republic of Congo]] and north-western and western Angola.
*''Turdus pelios graueri'' Neumann, 1908: eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, [[Burundi]], [[Rwanda]] and western Tanzania.
*''Turdus pelios stormsi'' Hartlaub, 1886: south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, eastern Angola and northern Zambia.

==References==
{{Commons category}}
{{Reflist}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q513026}}

[[Category:Turdus|African thrush]]
[[Category:Birds of Africa|African thrush]]
[[Category:Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa|African thrush]]
[[Category:Birds of the Gulf of Guinea]]
[[Category:Birds described in 1850|African thrush]]
[[Category:Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte|African thrush]]

African thrush - Revision history

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