Slate-colored Solitaire

About the Slate-colored Solitaire

The slate-colored solitaire (Myadestes unicolor) is a species of bird in the family Turdidae, the thrushes. It is found in Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua. The slate-colored solitaire was originally described in 1857 as Myadestes unicolor and has retained that binomial since then. The slate-colored solitaire and the brown-backed solitaire (M. occidentalis) are sister species.

The slate-colored solitaire's further taxonomy is not settled. The IOC, AviList, and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World treat it as monospecific. However, the Clements taxonomy assigns it two subspecies, the nominate M. u. unicolor (PL Sclater, 1857) and M. u. pallens (Miller & Griscom, 1925).

This article treats the slate-colored solitaire as monotypic. The brown-backed solitaire is 19 to 20.5 cm (7.5 to 8.1 in) long and weighs 30 to 44 g (1.1 to 1.6 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults are mostly slaty gray that is slightly lighter on their underparts than above. They have a broken white eye-ring, blacker primary coverts, black flight feathers with buff edges, and whitish gray outer tail feathers... Wikipedia →