Turdus abyssinicus
Silhouette: Sharon Wegner-Larsen · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week >90%
The Abyssinian thrush (Turdus abyssinicus) is a passerine bird in the family Turdidae. It is also known as the African mountain thrush, or northern olive thrush The species was formerly treated as conspecific with the olive thrush (Turdus olivaceus) but the species were split based on the genetic differences. The ranges do not overlap. The Abyssinian thrush is native to the eastern Afromontane.
The Abyssinian 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 abyssinicus. Gmelin based his description on "Merle brun d'Abissinie" that had been described in 1775 by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his multi-volume work Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux.
The Abyssinian thrush was formerly usually considered to be conspecific with the olive thrush (Turdus olivaceus). The species were split based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2005 that compared mitochondrial DNA sequences.
Six subspecies are recognised: Turdus abyssinicus abyssinicus... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aberdare National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Volcanoes National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 3 | Bale Mountains National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 4 | Nairobi National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 5 | Nyungwe National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 6 | Virunga National Park | 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo | |
| 7 | Lake Nakuru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 8 | Bwindi Impenetrable National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 9 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 10 | Arusha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 11 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 12 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Addis Ababa | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 2 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report an Abyssinian Thrush sighting in Nyungwe National Park on a given day, based on 539 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 18th most-seen of the 252 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report an Abyssinian Thrush in Nyungwe National Park on a given day, against about 20% in September to November, the lowest months. That is one of Nyungwe National Park's driest months, with about 65 mm of rain against 550 mm in December.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Abyssinian 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.
5th of 12
Of the 12 parks where we can rate Abyssinian Thrush sightings, Nyungwe National Park ranks 5th at about 40%. The best odds are in Aberdare National Park (Kenya, about 70%), Volcanoes National Park (Rwanda, about 60%) and Bale Mountains National Park (Ethiopia, about 60%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Abyssinian Thrush is recorded against all the birds logged in Nyungwe National Park (539 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.
