Black-headed nightingale-thrush

Black-headed nightingale-thrush
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Turdidae
Genus: Catharus
Species:
C. mexicanus
Binomial name
Catharus mexicanus
(Bonaparte, 1856)

The black-headed nightingale-thrush (Catharus mexicanus) is a species of bird in the family Turdidae, the thrushes and allies. It is found in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama.[2] It has also been recorded as a vagrant in the U. S. state of Texas.[3]

Taxonomy and systematics

The black-headed nightingale-thrush was originally described in 1856 by Charles Lucien Bonaparte as Malacocychla mexicana.[4] It was later reassigned to its present genus Catharus that had been erected in 1850.[2] Bonaparte had noted the specie's resemblance to members of Catharus.[4]

The black-headed nightingale's further taxonomy is unsettled. The IOC, AviList, and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World assign it these four subspecies:[2][5][6]

The Clements taxonomy does not recognize C. m. yaegeri and C. m. carrikeri. It includes C. m. yaegeri in C. m. cantator and retains the earlier binomial of C. m. fumosus (Ridgway, 1888) for C. m. carrikeri.[7]

This article follows the four-subspecies model.

Description

The black-headed nightingale-thrush is 15 to 16.5 cm (5.9 to 6.5 in) long and weighs about 30 g (1.1 oz). Adult males of the nominate subspecies C. m. mexicanus have a black crown and a dark gray face with a bright orange eye-ring. Their upperparts are olive-brown. Their throat is white with faint dark streaks, their breast and flanks pale grayish brown, and their belly and vent white. Adult females are similar to males but have a browner head and breast. Subspecies C. m. cantator is slightly smaller than the nominate with a much grayer face and throat and an olive wash on the breast. C. m. yaegeri has a strong rufescent wash on the back. C. m. carrikeri has dark ruddy tones on their upperparts and the darkest gray underparts of all the subspecies. All subspecies have bright orange bills, legs, and feet.[8]

Distribution and habitat

The black-headed nightingale-thrush has a disjunct distribution. The subspecies are found thus:

An individual of C. m. mexicanus spent much of 2004 in Hidalgo County, Texas.[3]

The black-headed nightingale-thrush primarily inhabits lowland and montane evergreen forest in the tropical and subtropical zones.[9] In Guatemala and Honduras it also occurs in pine-oak forest.[10] Sources differ on its overall elevational range. One states it as 600 to 1,800 m (2,000 to 5,900 ft)[9] and another as 750 to 1,800 m (2,500 to 5,900 ft)[8]. The latter is stated as the species' elevational range in Guatemala and Honduras.[10] A field guide to Costa Rican birds places it between 300 and 1,000 m (1,000 and 3,300 ft) on the Caribbean slope and between 700 and 1,300 m (2,300 and 4,300 ft) on the Pacific slope.[11]

Behavior

Movement

The black-headed nightingale-thrush is mostly a year-round resident. There is evidence that individuals in the far northern part of the species' range move south for the winter, and there are also elevational movements in Veracruz.[8]

Feeding

The black-headed nightingale-thrush feeds on insects such as beetles and caterpillars. It also eats much fruit; that of Psychotria and Cephaelis have been noted. It forages in the forest understory and on the ground, where it flips over leaf litter.[8]

Breeding

The black-headed nightingale-thrush's breeding season has not been fully defined but includes April and May in Mexico and March to July in Costa Rica. It makes a large cup nest from mosses, strips of bark, and rootlets lined with finer plant material. It is typically placed in a fork in an understory plant between about 1 and 3 m (3 and 10 ft) above the ground, and often by a stream. The clutch is two or three eggs that are pinkish white to bluish white with reddish brown speckles. The incubation period, time to fledging, and details of parental care are not known.[8]

Other

It is aggressive when interacting with ruddy-capped nightingale-thrushes (C. frantzii).[12]

Vocalization

The black-headed nightingale-thrush sings mostly at dawn, dusk, and in the afternoon. Its song is "a series of rapid, thin, flute-like but slightly tinny, fuzzy phrases...e.g. dleet-dloo-dlee-dlee". Its calls include a "harsh complaining upslurred mew, rreahr, meahh or dzeeeet", a "hard dry rattle or trill when agitated", a "soft blurred pseeer", a "slow plaintive chowrr", "grrr", and "meww".[8]

Status

The IUCN has assessed the black-headed nightingale-thrush as being of Least Concern. It has a large range; its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified.[1] It is considered common in Oaxaca and locally fairly common in Panama.[8] It is rare and local in Guatemala and common in Honduras.[10] It is common on the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica and uncommon on the Pacific slope.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b BirdLife International (2018). "Black-headed Nightingale-thrush Catharus mexicanus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018 e.T22708647A131949423. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22708647A131949423.en. Retrieved 6 February 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d e Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (March 2025). "Thrushes". IOC World Bird List. v 15.1. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  3. ^ a b Richard C. Banks, Carla Cicero, Jon L. Dunn, Andrew W. Kratter, Pamela C. Rasmussen, J. V. Remsen, Jr., James D. Rising, and Douglas F. Stotz. "Forty-seventh supplement to the American Ornithological Society s Check-list of North American Birds". The Auk 2006, vol. 123:926–936 retrieved 21 June 2025
  4. ^ a b Bonaparte, Charles Lucien (1856). "Additions et corrections aux Tableaus paralléliques de la deuximè sous-classe des Oiseaux, PRAECOCES et AUTOPHAGES". Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des sciences (in French). 43. Centre national de la recherche scientifique par MM. les secrétaires perpétuels: 998. Retrieved 6 February 2026.
  5. ^ AviList Core Team. 2025. AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025. https://doi.org/10.2173/avilist.v2025 retrieved 11 June 2025
  6. ^ HBW and BirdLife International (2025). Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 10. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/about-our-science/taxonomy#birdlife-s-taxonomic-checklist retrieved 12 October 2025
  7. ^ a b c Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, M. Smith, and C. L. Wood. 2025. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2025. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved 3 November 2025
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Collar, N. (2020). Black-headed Nightingale-Thrush (Catharus mexicanus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.bhnthr1.01 retrieved 6 February 2026
  9. ^ a b c Check-list of North American Birds (7th ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Ornithologists' Union. 1998. p. 503.
  10. ^ a b c Fagan, Jesse; Komar, Oliver (2016). Field Guide to Birds of Northern Central America. Peterson Field Guides. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 316–317. ISBN 978-0-544-37326-6.
  11. ^ a b Garrigues, Richard; Dean, Robert (2007). The Birds of Costa Rica. Ithaca: Zona Tropical/Comstock/Cornell University Press. pp. 246–247. ISBN 978-0-8014-7373-9.
  12. ^ Jones, Samuel E. I.; Tobias, Joseph A.; Freeman, Robin; Portugal, Steven J. (2019). "Weak asymmetric interspecific aggression and divergent habitat preferences at an elevational contact zone between tropical songbirds". Ibis. 162 (3): 814–826. doi:10.1111/ibi.12793. hdl:10044/1/75618. ISSN 0019-1019.
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