The Tristan thrush (Turdus eremita ), also known as the starchy, is a species of bird in the thrush family that is endemic to the British overseas territories of the isolated Tristan da Cunha archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean.
An omnivore is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and ani...
Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While sc...
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
Oviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
A burrow is a hole or tunnel excavated into the ground by an animal to create a space suitable for habitation, temporary refuge, or as a byproduct ...
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Not a migrantAnimals that do not make seasonal movements and stay in their native home ranges all year round are called not migrants or residents.
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starts withThe bird was described by John Gould as being similar in size and appearance to the song thrush, and by Henry Moseley as like a very dark-coloured song thrush. However, it also has the short rounded wings and reduced keel indicative of a reduced need for flight, typical of bird species adapted to life on small islands.
This thrush typically has a length of about 22 cm (8.7 in). The nominate subspecies from Tristan differs from that from Nightingale Island, with the Tristan birds being warm dark brown on the upperparts rather than dull sooty-brown, rufous rather than dark fuscous on the sides of the head, and rufous-brown, rather than brownish-black, on the underparts. Birds from Inaccessible Island appear to be intermediate, with the sides of the head of a specimen from there speckled both rufous and fuscous.
The thrush is found on Tristan, Inaccessible, Nightingale, Middle and Stoltenhoff Islands in the Tristan group. It uses all the natural habitats available on the islands, including rocky shorelines, tussock grassland, fern-dominated shrubland and wet heathland.
An opportunistic omnivore and scavenger, the thrush feeds on earthworms and other invertebrates of the soil and leaf litter, as well as on carrion, berries, the eggs and fledglings of other birds, and kitchen scraps.
The thrush breeds from September to February. Its cup-shaped nest is woven from strands of grasses and other vegetation, and sited on or close to the ground. It lays a clutch of two or three, occasionally four, eggs. The fledging period is about 20 days.
The thrush is classified as near threatened because it has a small population with a restricted range. Predation by black rats on Tristan is an ongoing threat, though the other islands it occupies are rat-free. The feral cats that previously occupied Tristan have been eradicated. Conservation recommendations by BirdLife International are to continue regular population monitoring, to control rats on Tristan, and to prevent further introductions of mammalian predators.
A survey in 1972–1974 estimated the separate island populations as Tristan 40–60 pairs, Inaccessible 100–500 pairs, Nightingale 300–500 pairs, Middle 20–40 pairs and Stoltenhoff 10–20 pairs. In the 1980s the population of Inaccessible Island was revised to 850 pairs, and the total population for the whole group to about 6,000 individual birds. More recently, the number of birds on Tristan has been roughly estimated at several hundred. The population is stable with no evidence of decline in numbers or range.
