Turdus nudigenis
Silhouette: Sharon Wegner-Larsen · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The spectacled thrush, bare-eyed thrush, or yellow-eyed thrush (Turdus nudigenis), is a resident breeding bird in the Lesser Antilles and in South America from Colombia and Venezuela south and east to northern Brazil. In Trinidad and Tobago, this thrush is also known as big-eye grieve.
The similar but allopatric Ecuadorian thrush was formerly considered a subspecies of the bare-eyed thrush and named T. n. maculirostris; it is now normally considered as a separate species T. maculirostris. It has a narrower eyering and is only found in forest and woodland in western Ecuador and northwestern Peru.
The spectacled thrush is 23–24 cm (9.1–9.4 in) long and weighs 60 g (2.1 oz). It is plain olive-brown above and paler brown below. The throat is brown-streaked off-white, and the lower belly is whitish. It has a prominent yellow eye ring which gives rise to its English and scientific names.
There are two poorly defined subspecies, differing mainly in the darkness of the plumage. Sexes are similar, but young birds are flecked above and spotted below, and have a thinner eye ring. The song is a musical warble, slower and lower pitched than that of the cocoa thrush (T. fumigatus... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Main Ridge Forest Reserve | 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago | |
| 2 | Henri Pittier National Park | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 3 | Caroni Swamp | 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago | |
| 4 | Sierra de la Macarena National Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 5 | Chingaza National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Bare-eyed Thrush sighting in Caroni Swamp on a given day, based on 80 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 77th most-seen of the 169 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Bare-eyed Thrush in Caroni Swamp on a given day, against under 5% in April and November, the lowest months. That is one of Caroni Swamp's wettest months, with about 120 mm of rain against 25 mm in February.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Bare-eyed Thrush sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Bare-eyed Thrush sightings, Caroni Swamp ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Main Ridge Forest Reserve (Trinidad and Tobago, about 40%) and Henri Pittier National Park (Venezuela, about 30%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Bare-eyed Thrush that you can see in Caroni Swamp (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Tropical Kingbird (about 60%), Great Kiskadee (about 60%) and Straight-billed Woodcreeper (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Bare-eyed Thrush is recorded against all the birds logged in Caroni Swamp (80 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
