Birdfinding.info ⇒ Widespread and apparently numerous, but uncommon away from its remote northern breeding grounds, and rarely encountered on its wintering grounds. In summer it can be found at many sites in Alaska, including Anchorage, Seward, Homer, Nome, the Denali Highway, Denali National Park, and Denali State Park. Relatively accessible breeding areas elsewhere include Churchill, Manitoba and Blackhead Road, Newfoundland. In eastern North America it is among the latest, reaching the southern states in mid- to late April. Around the Great Lakes and New England its numbers peak in mid- to late May.
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Catharus minimus
Breeds in the taiga belt from northeastern Siberia to Newfoundland. Winters in northern South America.
Approximate distribution of the Gray-cheeked Thrush. © Xeno-Canto 2022
Breeding. Breeds in subarctic forests consisting of dwarf spruce and dense brushy thickets of willow and alder, often near the transition from taiga to tundra—both arctic and alpine—and in bogs and muskegs within the taiga.
In North America, its breeding range encompasses most of Alaska (from the Brooks Range south to the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island) and the Yukon south into the mountains of northern British Columbia and eastward across the northern portion of the taiga belt to Labrador and Newfoundland.
In Russia, it has been found breeding from the Chukotka Peninsula west at least as far as the Kolyma River and south to the Penzhina River.
Nonbreeding. Winters in humid tropical forests from central Panama east to the Guianas and south mainly east of the Andes to northernmost Bolivia and Rondônia. Also winters in smaller numbers or sporadically north to Trinidad and east to Amapá and northern Pará.
On its wintering grounds it habitually remains in dense cover and is generally difficult to detect, so the full extent of its range is not well understood.
Movements. Among the latest spring migrant songbirds in eastern North America, the Gray-cheeked Thrush departs its wintering grounds in early to mid-April and arrives on its subarctic breeding grounds from late May into early June.
The largest portion of the population apparently migrates north through the Caribbean lowlands of Central America and the Yucatán Peninsula, then crosses the Gulf of Mexico and fans out across the central and eastern U.S. Some portion apparently flies directly across the western Caribbean and makes landfall on Cuba or the Bahamas en route to North America.
Southbound migration follows essentially the same route, beginning in late August or early September and continuing into early November.
Recorded fairly regularly as a fall vagrant to Bermuda and northern Europe, mainly from late September through October. Most European records are concentrated in a few areas: the southwestern British Isles (especially the Isles of Scilly); northwestern France; the Shetland Islands; and the southern coast of Iceland. It has also been recorded as an autumn vagrant on offshore islands of Japan (Hegura-jima) and Mexico (Clipperton), and the Azores (Corvo and Flores).
Identification
Generally similar to other North American Catharus thrushes, but Gray-cheeked is somewhat darker and grayer and can often be distinguished by its more uniformly cold-brown upperparts, relatively dark, unmarked, grayish face, and grayish flanks.
Gray-cheeked Thrush. (Diamond Creek Gulch, Homer, Alaska; August 4, 2004.) © Mark Chappell
Like its close relatives, Gray-cheeked is plainly attired overall with unmarked brown upperparts and whitish underparts that have bold, blackish spots on the throat and chest. The spots extend down to the mid-breast where they become blurry.
Gray-cheeked is nearly identical to Bicknell’s Thrush, with which it was traditionally regarded as conspecific. Bicknell’s averages ~10% smaller and often shows somewhat warmer brown plumage, especially on the tail. (For a detailed comparison, see below.)
Otherwise most similar to Swainson’s Thrush, differing most notably in facial pattern and coloration—Gray-cheeked’s face typically appears dark with an indistinct eyering, whereas Swainson’s usually shows broad buffy spectacles (eyering and lores).
Gray-cheeked Thrush. (Athens, Georgia; October 19, 2020.) © Richard Hall
Gray-cheeked Thrush. (Chebogue Point, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia; May 8, 2016.) © Mark Dennis
Like other Catharus thrushes, when seen in flight its underwings show a surprisingly bold pattern that consists of two pale bars and two dark bars.
Voice. Song is rich and musical, a series of chattering phrases that begins with a burst of whistles and ends with a lower reverberating tone. It has been rendered as “chook-chook, wee-o, wee-o, wee-o-ti-t-ter-ee.” Each rendition lasts about two seconds, and they are spaced about two to five seconds apart: Call is a slurred pe-EW! that quickly rises and falls:
Notes
Polytypic species consisting of two recognized subspecies. Formerly considered conspecific with the Bicknell’s Thrush (bicknelli).
See below for comparisons of Gray-cheeked Thrush with Bicknell’s Thrush and Swainson’s Thrush.
Cf. Bicknell’s Thrush. Gray-cheeked and Bicknell’s Thrushes are nearly identical and were long considered conspecific. Their breeding and wintering ranges are not known to overlap—but the population that breeds on Newfoundland, classified as Gray-cheeked, has been recognized as potentially intermediate, which suggests some history of interbreeding there. They overlap widely on migration, in May and September, as Gray-cheeked migrates throughout Bicknell’s’ range.
The internal variation within each species is enough that they overlap on all visible characteristics. Gray-cheeked is slightly larger (~10% on most measurements), but this difference is not helpful for field identification. Bicknell’s is usually a slightly warmer shade of brown overall and more likely to show a noticeably reddish-brown tail (suggesting Hermit Thrush), so some individuals can be identified as Bicknell’s on that basis.
Gray-cheeked and Bicknell’s have similar songs but with different endings. Gray-cheeked usually ends with a pair of low notes—sometimes sustaining the final note, sometimes not. In contrast, Bicknell’s characteristically ends with a single, musical, richly reverberating note. When it sustains the final note, Gray-cheeked’s ending is lower-pitched and less reverberating than Bicknell’s. Their calls do not differ noticeably.
Cf. Swainson’s Thrush. Gray-cheeked and Swainson’s Thrushes are very similar and overlap broadly throughout the year. When breeding, they occur together from Alaska to Newfoundland; in winter and migration period, Swainson’s occurs essentially throughout Gray-cheeked’s range.
Gray-cheeked (left) and Swainson’s Thrushes, showing close side-by-side comparison of their facial markings. (Teslin Lake Bird Observatory, Yukon; September 4, 2016.) © Cameron Eckert
The most consistent visual distinction is their facial patterns. All forms of Swainson’s Thrush are usually recognizable by their buffy spectacles (a prominent eyering and supraloral stripe), whereas Gray-cheeked has an essentially unmarked face.
Their voices also differ noticeably. Swainson’s’ song is relatively slow, consists mainly of separate fluted notes, and ends with a thin, high-pitched reverberation. Gray-cheeked’s song is relatively fast and jumbled, and ends with a strong, lower-pitched reverberation. Swainson’s’ typical call is a percussive chuck note, whereas Gray-cheeked’s is a nasal, down-slurred pwEER!
References
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