Catharus minimus
adult
The Gray-cheeked Thrush is a small and fairly distinctive thrush. The sexes are similar. Adults have a gray-brown tail and upperparts. The face has gray cheeks (buff in the similar Swainson’s Thrush; with a faint, pale gray eyering (Swainson’s has buff “spectacles”). The pale throat and malar stripe are separated by a dark line. The breast is suffused with buffish yellow and adorned with dark spots; the otherwise pale underparts show faint gray spots on the lower breast and gray-washed flanks. Juveniles are gray-brown and spotted, but by fall, when they migrate, their plumage is similar to that of an adult aside from pale tips to the wing coverts.
The Gray-cheeked Thrush is present as a breeding species mainly from May to August. It spends the rest of the year in northern South America. It favors damp, boggy woodland and forages in leaf litter for invertebrates. It is generally unobtrusive and easily overlooked.
immature
adult
FACT FILE
LENGTH 7.25 in (18.5 cm)
FOOD Invertebrates
HABITAT Northern mixed and coniferous forests
STATUS Widespread and fairly common summer visitor
VOICE Song is a series of fluty notes, descending in tone, sometimes ending with a trill. Call is a nasal piuur
