Red-and-black Thrush

The red-and-black thrush, also called the Peleng thrush, is a ground-thrush restricted to Peleng and Taliabu. Taxonomists formerly treated it as a subspecies of the red-backed thrush, under combinations including Zoothera erythronota mendeni and Zoothera mendeni. Current checklists recognise Geokichla mendeni as a monotypic species, reflecting both its island distribution and its separation from the red-backed form on Sulawesi and neighbouring islands (ITIS; IOC World Bird List).

The species is associated with forest on its two known islands, but accessible accounts contain remarkably little direct natural-history information. Its present placement in Geokichla follows molecular work showing that the old broad genus Zoothera was not a single evolutionary lineage. Diet, nest form, clutch size and incubation are therefore left unstated rather than inferred from related ground-thrushes. The narrow range makes locality an important part of any identification (Voelker and Klicka 2008; BirdForum).