Turdus pelios
Silhouette: Sharon Wegner-Larsen · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an African Thrush sighting in Niokolo-Koba National Park on a given day, based on 19 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 164th most-seen of the 215 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and March
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an African Thrush in Niokolo-Koba National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April, August–September and November–January, the lowest months. Those are among Niokolo-Koba National Park's driest months, with almost no rain against 300 mm in August. May–July and October have too few records to rate.
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.
12th of 14
Of the 14 parks where we can rate African Thrush sightings, Niokolo-Koba National Park ranks 12th at under 5%. 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 Niokolo-Koba National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Long-tailed Glossy Starling (about 90%), Yellow-crowned Gonolek (about 70%) and Common Bulbul (about 70%), 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 Niokolo-Koba National Park (19 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.
