Fun Clay-colored Thrush Facts For Kids

The clay-colored thrush, Turdus grayi, is endemic to North and Central America and is the national bird of Costa Rica. They are known for the melodious song that brings rain on earth by many Costa Ricans. This brown bird is also found in south Texas, Mexico, Panama, northern Colombia, and Oaxaca city. These birds are usually seen solo or in pairs. They feed in groups, and these groups are also known as 'worms' of robins.

They nest on medium-height trees and bushes during the breeding season. They protect their nest from any predators and use their calls and song to indicate any danger. As most of their diet includes insects, these brown birds feed on the ground most of the time. With the help of their bill, they are known to follow an ant army and attack pests disturbing the anthill.

Read on to know more exciting facts about these birds. To know more about similar species, check out the song thrush and blue whistling thrush.

What type of animal is a clay-colored thrush?

The clay-colored thrush, Turdus grayi, is a national bird of Costa Rica that belongs to the Turdidae family of animals.

What class of animal does a clay-colored thrush belong to?

This Texas bird, also known as the clay-colored robin, belongs to the Aves class of animals.

How many clay-colored thrushes are there in the world?

Even though this American robin is not marked as threatened, the exact number of their population range is unknown.

Where does a clay-colored thrush live?

This national bird, also known as the clay-colored robin, is found in the regions of North America. Their range mainly focuses on south Texas, northern Colombia, Mexico, San Jose, Costa Rica, and Oaxaca city.

What is a clay-colored thrush's habitat?

The favorable habitats for these birds are gardens and woodlands around urban spaces. They are also seen moving around in the forest with semi-open areas, rainforests, or in the forest with fruit-bearing trees. They also prefer a warmer habitat range which allows them to feed on the ground.

Who does a clay-colored thrush live with?

These are monogamous birds and usually live in pairs during the breeding season or are often seen alone. They are known to forage or feed on the ground in their big flocks. These flocks are called worms.

How long does a clay-colored thrush live?

This species of American robin has a good lifespan of 9-9.5 years.

How do they reproduce?

The breeding season for clay-colored thrush birds occurs between March and July. The clay-colored thrush song is something that the male birds use to attract their female partners. They settle in their most favorable habitats during the breeding season and build cup-shaped nests with leaves, moss, mud, and grass.

These bird pairs are monogamous and usually produce two broods every breeding season. After mating, the female bird is known to lay a clutch of two to four eggs. These eggs are incubated by the female bird alone for a span of 12 to a maximum of 14 days, after which the chicks hatch and are taken care of by their parents until they leave the nest.

What is their conservation status?

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, the clay-colored thrush range has been listed as of Least Concern as these birds are not endangered or threatened.  

What does the clay-colored thrush look like?

This species is named clay-colored thrush and the Turdus grayi has all brown feathers. The birds might have a darker brown shade based on their habitat and the surrounding warmth. Their lower parts are usually light in color, and their throat has light streaks. These streaks may or may not be present in immature birds as they have mottling marks all over. Their bill is pointed and yellowish-green in color, and their eyes are dark red and beaded. These thrushes have short clay or flesh-colored legs.

How cute are they?

This national bird of Costa Rica can be considered cute mainly because of its calls and songs that have rhythmic notes. These songs have been believed to bring rain during the rainy season.

How do they communicate?

Just like many other birds, this range of thrushes engages in vocal communications along with using visual cues and gestures. They are known to have flight calls that may be confused with the American robin's, although the thrushes have a harsher call. They also have a series of songs that males especially use to attract females during the breeding season. These songs are slow in tempo and have irregular phrases of musical notes.

How big is a clay-colored thrush?

Even though this species of thrushes is often confused with the robin, they are twice the size of red-capped robins. Their average size ranges between 9 in (23 cm) and 10.6 in (27 cm).

How fast can a clay-colored thrush fly?

This national bird of Costa Rica, which is often seen in major parts of North America, has a swift flight. They fly by rapidly beating their wings and search for insects on the ground by hopping from one place to another with their quick flights.

How much does a clay-colored thrush weigh?

This species of thrushes are tiny, with a weight range of just 2.6–2.7 oz (74–76 g).

What are the male and female names of the species?

No, the term clay-colored thrush is used for both males and females.

What would you call a baby clay-colored thrush?

A baby of this national bird of Costa Rica is called a chick or a nestling as it hatches in the nest built by the parent birds.

What do they eat?

This species of thrushes from Mexico, south Texas, Costa Rica, is known to feed on insects and a few small invertebrates on the ground with the help of the pointed bill. The major source of their diet is ants, snails, earthworms, bugs, termites, and lizards. Being omnivores, they are also known to include berries and many other fruits in their diet.

Are they dangerous?

Even though this bird is known to protect its nest aggressively and is seen battling it out with raptors like the golden eagle, these birds are not known to pose any dangers to humans or human settlements.

Would they make a good pet?

As a national bird of Costa Rica, this thrush species is seen across the gardens and throughout forest areas, although there haven't been records of their domestication.

Did you know...

This species of clay-colored thrush is the national bird of Costa Rica and is known to be non-migratory, meaning that these birds are mainly found and are endemic to the parts of North and Central America.

The species present in Panama regions prefer to breed during the dry season, knowing that the threat of predators is less during these times, even if there are food availability issues.

What is the official bird of Costa Rica? 

This species of clay-colored thrush is the national bird of Costa Rica mainly because of the melodious song that it sings. The Costa Ricans believed that this bird's song was the reason for bringing down rain during the rainy season.

When did the clay-colored robin get renamed clay-colored thrush? 

In 1838, this bird was officially named after the Gray brothers. It was known as Gray's thrush at that time. This species of bird was later known as the clay-colored robin mainly due to its sweet melodious song. Later, however, scientists reassigned it as the clay-colored thrush though the exact time period for the same is not known.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! Learn more about some other birds from our common ground dove facts and Eleonora cockatoo facts pages.

You can even occupy yourself at home by coloring in one of our free printable songbird coloring pages.

Second image by Joseph C Boone.