Thrush-tanager | Rhodinocichlidae

Lijsttangaren | Tangaras zorzal

The family consists of a single species, the Rosy Thrush-tanager, long placed among the tanagers but shown by DNA studies to form a separate, isolated branch of the songbirds. In the guide it occurs in a number of separate areas, from western Mexico to Panama, always in dense undergrowth of dry and semi-humid forest and forest edge. The male is dark slate grey above, with a rosy red throat, breast and eyebrow; in the female that red is replaced by warm orange-brown. The bill is fairly long and pointed and the legs are sturdy. It lives close to or on the ground, where it tosses leaf litter aside with its bill in search of insects and other small animals, and it usually stays well hidden in the thickets. To see it, one follows the voice: the song is a series of rich, clear whistles, and mates sometimes sing in turn. The nest is a cup of plant material low in a shrub or dense thicket. For all the bright colours of the male, it is a species that is seldom seen.