tmichael

Got to be Black-throated Thrush - everything right on what we can see.

Long anticipated first for HK.

Mike Turnbull

[ Last edited by tmichael at 8/11/2009 07:47 ]

tmichael

Mike Leven is quite right, of course, about the problem in the tail. The red is very noticeable and my specific (or sub-specific) reference to Black-throated, rather than Dark-throated Thrush was based on too hasty and bleary-eyed a look at p 279 of the Collins Bird Guide (1st ed.) this morning.

Mike Turnbull

tmichael

Hybridisation does not preclude taxa being considered "species", otherwise we'd virtually just have one species of duck, one of goose etc, etc.

However, it certainly doesn't strengthen the case for treatment of similar taxa as species, at least not under the Biological Species Concept.

However, again, "species" is just that, a "concept", a human construct - there's no "truth" about it, it's just a choice you make about how to regard different taxa.

These two certainly look different, and I believe have some different habitat preferences, so time for me, I think, to listen to the songs and see what I personally think. Brazil (B of E Asia) suggests they sound quite different (but clearly not critically different enough to prove totally unattractive to the opposite sex of the other form, at least occasionally).  

Mike Turnbull