Turdus nigrescens
Silhouette: Sharon Wegner-Larsen · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The sooty thrush (Turdus nigrescens) is a species of bird in the family Turdidae, the thrushes and allies. It is found in Costa Rica and Panama. It was formerly known as the sooty robin. The sooty thrush was originally described in 1861 with its current binomial Turdus nigrescens. It is monotypic.
The sooty thrush is 24 to 25.5 cm (9.4 to 10 in) long and weighs about 96 g (3.4 oz). The species is sexually dimorphic. Adult males have a mostly brownish black head and body with sooty black lores and an orange eye-ring. Their wings and tail are also sooty black. Adult females resemble males but are browner overall and sometimes have some darker streaks on the throat. Both sexes have a white iris, a yellow-orange bill, and orange legs and feet. Juveniles have dark brown upperparts with buff streaks and buff underparts with dark brown spots. They have a white chin, a pale iris, and a brownish yellow bill, legs, and feet. The superficially similar mountain thrush (T. plebejus) shares its range but is uniformly brown with dark bare parts. It also resembles the slaty-backed nightingale-thrush (Catharus fuscater) but there is no range overlap... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Irazú Volcano National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 2 | Los Quetzales National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 3 | Tapantí-Macizo de la Muerte National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 4 | Poás Volcano National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 5 | Chirripó National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 6 | Volcán Barú National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 7 | La Amistad International Park (Panama) | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 8 | Braulio Carrillo National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Sooty Thrush sighting in Volcán Barú National Park on a given day, based on 130 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 146th most-seen of the 296 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June–July, September and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Sooty Thrush in Volcán Barú National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January–May, August and October–November, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Sooty 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.
6th of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Sooty Thrush sightings, Volcán Barú National Park ranks 6th at under 5%. The best odds are in Irazú Volcano National Park (Costa Rica, about 90%), Los Quetzales National Park (Costa Rica, about 40%) and Tapantí-Macizo de la Muerte National Park (Costa Rica, about 40%).
Same genus: Turdus
The closest relatives of the Sooty Thrush that you can see in Volcán Barú National Park (genus Turdus, Typical Thrushes) are Clay-colored Thrush (about 60%), Mountain Thrush (about 50%) and White-throated Thrush (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Sooty Thrush is recorded against all the birds logged in Volcán Barú National Park (130 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.
