Species Spotlight: Western Quail-thrush

Introducing a new concept! And the first species in the spotlight.

Many blogs have a daily or weekly subject. For instance, Jerry Coyne has daily dialogues with his cat Hili on his blog Why Evolution is True. As a bird watcher, I decided to add the Species Spotlight as a returning topic. Using the IOC birdlist, I randomly pick one species and briefly introduce it. Because the rich diversity of birds worldwide, this is a nice way to get to know some new species.

And the first species is ... (*drum rolls*) the Western Quail-thrush (Cinclosoma marginatum)!

This species belongs to the family Cinclosomatidae and is endemic to Australia. The habitat they occur in is stony, open acacia shrubland. Ford (1983) treats this species as a subspecies of the Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush (C. castaneothorax), but its taxonomic position is still uncertain.