Varzea Thrush Turdus sanchezorum Scientific name definitions

In appearance, Varzea Thrush is completely nondescript: it is almost entirely dull brown, with a gray brown tail, a few blackish streaks on the throat, and yellow green bill and eyering. This species long was confused with another all brown species, Hauxwell's Thrush (T. hauxwelli), and indeed both species are broadly sympatic in western Amazonia. The two species are readily separated by song and, most easily, by call, and in fact are not even closely related, despite the superficial plumage similarities. Varzea and Hauxwell's thrushes also segregate by habitat, with Varzea - as the English name implies - primarily occupying river floodplain forests and, locally, also occurs in more open forests and savannas on white sand soils.

c. 22–24 cm; 58 g. A large thrush. Head and upperparts, including upperwing-coverts, uniformly rich sepia-brown; flight-feathers dark dull brown, outer webs edged warm sepia; tail greyish-brown, narrowly edged (especially basally) warm sepia, and sharply contrasting with uppertail-coverts; chin and throat warm buffy white (whitest near centre), streaked dusky brown, fading into camel-brown on breast to flanks and thighs, lower breast slightly paler, centre of belly, vent and undertail-coverts whitish, undertail-coverts with brown streaks; underwing-coverts bright orange-rufous, this colour extending to the base of primaries; iris brown, dull orange eyering; bill dull yellow at tip, darkening to blackish at base; legs olive-grey. Differs from very similar T. hauxwelli and T. ignobilis in colour of bill and orbital ring; further distinguished from former by grey-brown (not rufous-brown) tail, less extensively rufescent underside of primaries, and more contrastingly dark throat streaks on usually whiter background. Sexes similar. Juvenile not certainly described.

W & C Amazonia: recorded along larger tributaries of upper R Amazon/R Solimões in N Brazil, extreme SE Colombia and N Peru (where it extends along upper R Mayo Valley, in San Martín) (2 O’Neill, J. P., D. F. Lane, and L. N. Naka (2011) A cryptic new species of thrush (Turdidae: Turdus) from western Amazonia. Condor 113: 869–880. Close , 3 Guilherme, E. (2013). A range extension for Varzea Thrush Turdus sanchezorum in south-west Amazonia. Bull. Brit. Orn. Club 133(3): 249–251. Close ).

Varied repertoire. Most distinctive vocalization a rising, querulous, mewing call, very different from calls of e.g. T. hauxwelli, T. ignobilis, T. leucomelas and T. lawrencii (mewing calls ascribed to T. hauxwelli very likely based on misidentified recordings of present species). Other calls  include two rapid series of “cuk” notes, and some “cuk” notes followed by one or more musical reedy notes. Song  a slow, mellow ditty consisting of short, slurred phrases each of 4–10 notes, with frequent breaks of more than 2 seconds in length; shorter, more slowly delivered and more broken than songs of T. hauxwelli and T. fumigatus and with greater number of rich, slurred phrases.

Not assessed. Locally common. In Colombia has been recorded at only one site (I Ronda) in Amazonas; in Peru, found in San Martín (at least two sites), Loreto (eight or more localities), Ucayali (two sites) and Cuzco (one locality); in Brazil, records from at least ten sites along major rivers.