Turdus pelios
Silhouette: Sharon Wegner-Larsen · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The African thrush or West African thrush (Turdus pelios) is a passerine bird in the thrush family Turdidae. It is common in well-wooded areas over much of the western part of sub-Saharan Africa, it was once considered to be conspecific with the olive thrush but that species has now been split further. Populations are resident (non-migratory).
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. It weighs 46–78 g (1.6–2.8 oz) and measures 21–23 cm (8.3–9.1 in) in length.
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. 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.
The African thrush can be found in all sorts of wooded habitats including forest... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 2 | Akagera National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 3 | Semuliki National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 4 | Lake Mburo National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 5 | Volcanoes National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 6 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 7 | Lake Nakuru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 8 | Bwindi Impenetrable National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 9 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 10 | Virunga National Park | 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo | |
| 11 | Nyungwe National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 12 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 13 | Bale Mountains National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 14 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 2 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 3 | Brazzaville | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo | |
| 4 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 5 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 6 | Yaoundé | 🇨🇲 Cameroon | |
| 7 | Bujumbura | 🇧🇮 Burundi | |
| 8 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 9 | Maiduguri | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 10 | Lagos | 🇳🇬 Nigeria |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an African Thrush sighting in Murchison Falls National Park on a given day, based on 137 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 135th most-seen of the 424 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.
February, April and June–July
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report an African Thrush in Murchison Falls National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March and December, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most African 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.
9th of 14
Of the 14 parks where we can rate African Thrush sightings, Murchison Falls National Park ranks 9th at about 10%. The best odds are in Kibale National Park (Uganda, about 40%), Akagera National Park (Rwanda, about 30%) and Semuliki National Park (Uganda, about 30%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the African Thrush that you can see in Murchison Falls National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Piapiac (about 70%), Rüppell's Glossy-starling (about 60%) and Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu (about 60%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the African Thrush is recorded against all the birds logged in Murchison Falls National Park (137 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.
