Zoothera aurea
Silhouette: Francesco "Architetto" Rollandin · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
White's thrush (Zoothera aurea) is a member of the thrush family, Turdidae. It was named after the English naturalist Gilbert White. The genus name Zoothera comes from the Ancient Greek zoon, "animal" and theras, "hunter". The specific aurea is from Latin aureus, "golden".
It breeds in wet coniferous taiga, mainly in the eastern Palearctic in Siberia to Manchuria, Korea and Japan. Northern races are strongly migratory, with most birds moving to southeastern Asia during the winter. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe.
The sexes are similar, 27–31 cm long, with black scaling on a paler white or yellowish background. The most striking identification feature in flight is the black band on the white underwings, a feature shared with Siberian thrush. The male has a song which is a loud, far-carrying mechanical whistle, with 5–10 second pauses between each one second long phrase twee...tuuu....tuuu....tuuu.
It was previously considered a subspecies of the scaly thrush. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cuc Phuong National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 2 | Taroko National Park | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 3 | Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 4 | Nikko National Park | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 5 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 6 | Khao Yai National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Novosibirsk | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 2 | Qingdao | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 3 | Xiamen City | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 4 | Shanghai | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 5 | Nanjing | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 6 | Hong Kong | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 7 | Tuen Mun | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 8 | Suzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 9 | Busan | 🇰🇷 South Korea | |
| 10 | Hangzhou | 🇨🇳 China |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Khao Kheow Open Zoo | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 2 | Inokashira Park Zoo | 🇯🇵 Japan |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a White's Thrush sighting in Beijing on a given day, based on 75 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 204th most-seen of the 324 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a White's Thrush in Beijing on a given day, against under 5% in October to August, the lowest months. That is one of Beijing's wettest months, with about 65 mm of rain against almost none in January.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White's Thrush sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
16th of 21
Of the 21 cities where we can rate White's Thrush sightings, Beijing ranks 16th at under 5%. The best odds are in Novosibirsk (Russia, about 10%), Qingdao (China, about 10%) and Xiamen City (China, about 10%).
Same family: Turdidae
The closest relatives of the White's Thrush that you can see in Beijing (family Turdidae, Thrushes) are Chinese Blackbird (about 60%), Naumann's Thrush (about 20%) and Red-throated Thrush (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White's Thrush is recorded against all the birds logged in Beijing (75 verified sightings), 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.
