Catharus ustulatus
Swainson's thrush, also called olive-backed thrush, russet-backed thrush, and salmonberry bird is a medium-sized thrush. It is a member of genus Catharus and is typical of it in terms of its subdued coloration and beautiful, ascending flute-like voice. Swainson's thrush was named after William Swainson, an English ornithologist.

Matt Reinbold from Bismarck, ND, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- Swainson's thrushPBDB
- Sits inside
- CatharusPBDB
- Diet
- insectivore, frugivorePBDB, for Turdidae
- Life habit
- volantPBDB, for Turdidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Turdidae
Time the record covers
At most 2.6 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.58 Mya and 11.7 ka, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
3 occurrences of Catharus ustulatus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
3 occurrences- Pleistocene100%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Catharus ustulatus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Catharus ustulatus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
119 taxa- Athene cunicularia3 sites
- Aves3 sites
- Catharus guttatus3 sites
- Cerorhinca monocerata3 sites
- Chondestes grammacus3 sites
- Eremophila alpestris3 sites
- Falco sparverius3 sites
- Haemorhous mexicanus3 sites
- Icterus bullockii3 sites
- Lanius ludovicianus3 sites
- Larus heermanni3 sites
- Larus occidentalis3 sites
- Melospiza melodia3 sites
- Oreoscoptes montanus3 sites
- Oreothlypis celata3 sites
- Passerculus sandwichensis3 sites
- Passerella iliaca3 sites
- Pheucticus melanocephalus3 sites
- Pipilo maculatus3 sites
- Piranga ludoviciana3 sites
- Ptychoramphus aleuticus3 sites
- Rissa tridactyla3 sites
- Salpinctes obsoletus3 sites
- Sturnella neglecta3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Catharus ustulatus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
1 referenceEach of the 3 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content2
Picture of Catharus ustulatus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Matt Reinbold from Bismarck, ND, USA
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 2.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itCatharus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Nuttall 1840)