The slaty-backed nightingale-thrush (Catharus fuscater) is a species of bird in the family Turdidae, the thrushes and allies. It is found in Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.
Taxonomy and systematics
The slaty-backed nightingale-thrush was originally described in 1845 by as Myioturdus fuscater. It was later reassigned to its present genus Catharus that had been erected in 1850.
The slaty-backed nightingale's further taxonomy is unsettled. The IOC, AviList, and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World assign it these seven subspecies:
C. f. hellmayri Berlepsch, 1902
C. f. mirabilis Nelson, 1912
C. f. sanctaemartae Ridgway, 1904
C. f. fuscater (Lafresnaye, 1845)
C. f. opertaneus Wetmore, 1955
C. f. caniceps Chapman, 1924
C. f. mentalis Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1876
The Clements taxonomy recognizes four more subspecies:
C. f. arcanus Halley, Catanach, Klicka & Weckstein, 2023
C. f. tenebris Halley, Catanach, Klicka & Weckstein, 2023
C. f. berlepschi Lawrence, 1887
C. f. nebulus Halley, Catanach, Klicka & Weckstein, 2023
Halley et al. separate C. f. arcanus from C. f. mirabilis and C. f. tenebris from C. f. caniceps. They treat berlepschi as a full species and nebulus as a subspecies of it.
This article follows the seven-subspecies model with one exception in the Distribution section.
Description
In Costa Rica
The slaty-backed nightingale-thrush is 17 to 18 cm (6.7 to 7.1 in) long. Specimens from Ecuador and Colombia weighed 30.5 to 38 g (1.1 to 1.3 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies C. f. fuscater have a dark slate gray head with a bright orange to yellowish orange eye-ring and a white to gray throat. Their upperparts are dark slate gray. Their underparts are mostly dark slate gray; the center of the breast and belly have varying amounts of white mixed in and sometimes a yellowish tint to the white.
