Grey-cheeked Thrush
Catharus minimus
The gray-cheeked thrush is slightly larger than other Catharus thrushes, about 16 to 17 cm (6.7 in) in height and weighing between 26 and 30g. Wingspan ranges from 12.6-13.4 in (32-34 cm). The bird can be identified by its grayish face, partial pale eyering, drab gray-brown upperside and extensively dusky flanks. The area between the eye and the beak is grayish as well, but the area running from the beak to above the eye is grayish white. The gray-cheeked thrush is nearly identical to the Bicknell's Thrush. Voice: The vocalizations of the gray-cheeked thrush are the most reliable way to identify it, compared to the Bicknell's Thrush. It has a complex song of burry flute-like notes, usually inflecting downward at the end. It resembles a descending spiral like the veery (Catharus fuscescens), but higher, thinner, and nasal with stuttering pauses: "ch-ch zreeew zi-zi-zreeee zizreeew".
ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Slaty-backed Nightingale-Thrush
Catharus fuscater
The slaty-backed nightingale-thrush is 17 to 18 cm (6.7 to 7.1 in) long. Specimens from Ecuador and Colombia weighed 30.5 to 38 g (1.1 to 1.3 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies C. f. fuscater have a dark slate gray head with a bright orange to yellowish orange eye-ring and a white to gray throat. Their upperparts are dark slate gray. Their underparts are mostly dark slate gray; the center of the breast and belly have varying amounts of white mixed in and sometimes a yellowish tint to the white. Voice: A lyric description of the slaty-backed nightingale-thrush's song is "a dreamy, mesmerizing series of low, flute like phrases...eer-lee or ur-eee-lee, phrases halting and hypnotic, as if disembodied from bird and floating eerily through the forest". Another description is "melodious and leisurely...a series of simple phrases, e.g, toh-toh-tee...tee-toh or tlee-to-tleedelee...to wee-tlee?".
ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Where you might meet both
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Play today's Daily BirdPhotos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Grey-cheeked Thrush and Slaty-backed Nightingale-Thrush.