Blackbird with black chest

The Merle with black chest ( Turdus dissimilis ) is an Asian bird pertaining to the family of the Muscicapidae. He lives with the Bangladesh, in China, India, with the Laos, the Myanmar, in Thailand, and with the Vietnam.

Description

This bird measures from 18 to 22 cm for a mass of 75 G. It presents a Net sexual dimorphism.

The male with the head and the black chest (from where the specific name) while the orbital nozzle and circles are yellow sharp. The top of the belly and the sides are red more or less intense brick, the top of the wings and the slate-coloured or brown back gray black according to the subspecies. The bottom of the belly is white dirty and the legs orange yellow.

The female presents a variable coloring of the head going of olive to the brown one. Its back and its wings are brown dark. Its throat, the bottom of the belly and thecaudal ones are white. Its chest gray and is mottled of dark gray. The top of the belly is of a brown red less constant than that of the male.

The young people resemble the female much but duller and are mottled.

Voice

The cry of alarm of the Blackbird with black chest resembles much that of the black Merle.

It makes hear its mélodieux song of spring at the beginning of the summer.

Habitat

The Blackbird with black chest populates wood and the forests up to 2.500 m of altitude: forests of oaks, wood of leafy trees with persistent sheets (like the Rhododendron S), forests of conifers (in winter) and tropical forests comprising of the Bamboo S.

Subspecies and distribution

The Blackbird with black chest is represented by two subspecies:

dissimilis , of which the male with the head and the black chest, of the south-east of India until the south-west of China and in the north of Indo-China;
hortulorum , subspecies a little larger of which the male with the head and the chest slate-coloured gray (female also clearer), of Siberia, of Mandchourie, the south-east of China and Vietnam.

Behavior and reproduction

The Blackbird with black chest is a rather savage bird seldom observed with overdraft, especially in period of reproduction. He prefers to remain within timberings where he seeks his food on the ground around the shrubs with bays and of the fruit-lofts with a clear preference for the Pommier S and the Figuier S.

The reproduction proceeds April at July. The nest is generally built with the fork of a tree with dense foliage between one and six meters height. The outside makes up of grass and dead sheets while the interior is built with a mixture of grass and mud. The laying generally includes/understands three to five eggs pale blue green moucheté of brown crimson. Incubation lasts two weeks and the breeding of the young people three weeks.

Moult

The moult is held end of the summer at the beginning of the autumn.

Source

Delivertoux X. & Guihard C. (2007) Blackbird with black chest. Review Exotic birds , 322: 16-21.

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