Black-headed Nightingale-Thrush

About the Black-headed Nightingale-Thrush

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. It has also been recorded as a vagrant in Texas.

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

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: C. m. mexicanus (Bonaparte, 1856) C. m. cantator Griscom, 1930

C. m. yaegeri Phillips, AR, 1991 C. m. carrikeri Phillips, AR, 1991 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.

This article follows the four-subspecies model. The black-headed nightingale-thrush is 15 to 16.5 cm (5... Wikipedia →