ground thrush

▪ bird

      any of about 37 species of thrushes of the genus Zoothera (family Turdidae), including birds sometimes placed in the genera Geokichla, Ixoreus, Oreocincla, and Ridgwayia and some that have been assigned to Turdus. All are more than 20 centimetres (8 inches) long and have pale underwing stripes. They inhabit montane forest undergrowth. The largest (29 cm, or 11 ¹/₂ in.) and most widespread species is the golden mountain thrush (Z. dauma), also called White's, or tiger, thrush—a dark-flecked bird occurring over most of the Asian mainland and from Japan to Australia (where it is called ground-thrush). Southeastern Africa has the orange ground-thrush (Z. gurneyi). The two New World species are, in northwestern North America, the varied thrush (Z. naevia), which looks like an American robin with a black breast band, and, in Mexican highlands, the Aztec thrush (Z. pinicola), which is white-bellied. Several species share the varied, slow, organ-toned song pattern of other thrushes.

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