Turdus obscurus
Silhouette: Sharon Wegner-Larsen · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The eyebrowed thrush (Turdus obscurus) is a member of the thrush family Turdidae. It breeds in dense coniferous forest and taiga eastwards from Siberia and Mongolia to Japan. It is strongly migratory, wintering south to China and Southeast Asia. It is a rare vagrant to western Europe.
The eyebrowed thrush was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the thrushes in the genus Turdus and coined the binomial name Turdus obscurus. The scientific name comes from Latin Turdus meaning "thrush" and obscurus meaning "dark" or "dusky". Gmelin based his account on the "Dark thrush" that had been described in 1783 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his multi-volume work A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham noted that "This is Sibirian species and found in the woods beyond Lake Baikal" but did not explain the source of his information. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
This is an attractive thrush, with a grey back and head, the latter having a black eyeline, bordered white above and below. The breast and flanks... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Doi Inthanon National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 2 | Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 3 | Khao Yai National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 4 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 5 | Cuc Phuong National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 6 | Kinabalu Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 7 | Taroko National Park | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 8 | Nikko National Park | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 9 | Kerinci Seblat National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 10 | Khao Luang National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 11 | Royal Manas National Park | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | |
| 12 | Khao Sok National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 13 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Eyebrowed Thrush sighting in Hong Kong on a given day, based on 39 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 117th most-seen of the 204 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.
December
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Eyebrowed Thrush in Hong Kong on a given day, against under 5% in January to November, the lowest months. That is one of Hong Kong's driest months, with about 25 mm of rain against 280 mm in June.
Between midnight and 3 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Eyebrowed Thrush sightings with a recorded time, and about half of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
12th of 24
Of the 24 cities where we can rate Eyebrowed Thrush sightings, Hong Kong ranks 12th at under 5%. The best odds are in Hiroshima (Japan, about 10%), Fuzhou (China, about 10%) and Xiamen City (China, under 5%).
Same genus: Turdus
The closest relatives of the Eyebrowed Thrush that you can see in Hong Kong (genus Turdus, Typical Thrushes) are Grey-backed Thrush (about 10%), Japanese Thrush (about 10%) and Chinese Blackbird (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Eyebrowed Thrush is recorded against all the birds logged in Hong Kong (39 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.
