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To the Beauty of Birds

The Rufous-bellied Thrush Turdus rufiventris, is a songbird of the thrush family, Turdidae. It occurs in most of east and southeast Brazil from Maranhão south to Rio Grande do Sul states, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and northern regions of Argentina.

It is one of the most common birds across much of southeastern Brazil, and is known there under the name sabiá-laranjeira (Portuguese pronunciation: [sɐ̞biˈa lɐ̞ɾɐ̃ˈʒejɾɐ]). It was famously referred to in the well-known first strophe of the Brazilian nationalist poem Canção do exílio. The Rufous-bellied Thrush has been the state bird of São Paulo since 1966. This species is named after its distinctive reddish-orange underparts.

It is perceived that it makes use of plastic bags, twigs, feathers and even pieces of silly Christmas carols to compose the nest.
Found in forests and urban wooded areas, it is an omnivorous bird. Its food consists mainly of fruits and arthropods, and it can sometimes be seen attending mixed-species feeding flocks and moving through the bushes with many other birds.

It builds an open-cup nest, sometimes right on the forest floor, sometimes more than 20 meters high in a tree, but usually 4–5 meters above ground. The nestlings are attended by both parents however; as the young near fledging, they are fed every 5–7 minutes or so on average.

This photo was taken at Reserva Natural Otamandi, Argentina.

Rufous-bellied Thrush

Rufous Bellied Thrush 8860