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The Ground Scraper Thrush is sometimes confused with
the Spotted Ground-Thrush, but lacks its white wing spots and the
latter is also browner and has a crouching stance and is always asso- |
ciated
with forests.
The Ground Scraper Thrush is found from Southern to
Northern East Africa. Within South Africa it is absent from the far
Western and Southern parts.
The birds normally stay resident within an area, but some
evidence of seasonal movement in the Northern Cape and surrounding areas
have been recorded, with influxes late in the rainy season. Other sources
suggest at least partial disappearance in winter.
Ground Scraper Thrush uses a variety of open woodlands,
particularly where the understorey is poorly developed, and where bare
patches are present. The composition of preferred woodland varies greatly
with locality.
Brachystegia is reported as first choice by some although
other reports consider Brachystegia a poor habitat, or avoided altogether.
The apparent discrepancy may be because of habitat density, or
availability of alternatives. It is thought that higher density of
vegetation gave Olive and Kurrichane Thrushes the competitive edge to
exclude the Ground Scraper Thrush. However, elsewhere Ground Scraper
Thrushes will use fairly dense riverine vegetation. Other woodland types
used include Mopane in Northern Zimbabwe and sandveldt in Southern
Namibia. Broadleaved woodland is generally preferred to Acacia, but
towards the extremities of the range Acacia woodland is used.
It is the most social of the thrush, but is sometimes
solitary or occurring in pairs, associating for much of the year in what
appear to be family parties. They are generally shy in wild habitats but
are bolder and more confiding in gardens. Ground Scraper Thrush do not
interact much with other species.
They often run fast across open ground, stopping abruptly
in an upright stance to flick its wings, displaying the conspicuous
underwing markings. Sometimes only 1 wing is flicked. When disturbed it
flies to a high perch in a tree.
It forages on the ground, amid short grass in open spaces.
It also uses freshly burnt or otherwise cleared ground, running and
listening, scratching in a likely spot in leaf litter. It occasionally
forages in the air above fires, hawking prey. Identified food items fed to
nestlings include mulberries and a large earthworms and skinks. Adults eat
harvester termites on the ground and flying termites, mole cricket grubs
and dipteran flies, grasshoppers, beetles, spiders, isopods and slugs.
Piracy on other species has not been recorded but is itself pirated by
Fork-tailed Drongo.
This specific epithet in Tswana reflects their call the
closest : li-tsi-tsi-rufa.Their song is a variety of short phrases,
typically 4-8 notes, combining whistles with grating noises and clicks.
Renderings include choy-chichi-choy, wheee-pu-chichichichit, chee-puchery
and chyoo-cheepa-chyoo-cheepa, wooeet-tzz-tzz-wooeet and
wheee-toot-kzkzkzkz. The Alarm call is several clicks or a chuckled note.
Ground Scraper Thrush is monogamous and solitary when
breeding. Their laying season is well defined over much of the range. In
KwaZulu-Natal the breeding season ranges from August to December. In
the Limpopo the breeding spans from around August to January, but with a
clear peak between October and November. |
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The nest is built by both sexes and resembles a cup of
variable compositions. Nest material may vary from grass, rootlets, weeds
and other vegetation, spiders’ webs but is normally lined with feathers
but can also be lined with leaves. Nests are often built close to those
of Fork-tailed Drongo.
Favoured nest sites are large tree forks, often in or
adjacent to the main trunk, but also likes horizontal forks of
rough-barked trees. Trees used are usually broadleaved, but Lombardy
poplar, gum, wattle, plane, Calodendrum and Acacia Sieberiana are also
used. Nest height is normally between 2 and 9 metres above ground. Laying
may be delayed for up to 3 weeks after nest completion.
They normally lay 3 to 4 eggs. The eggs are ovate, pale
creamy blue to greenish blue, blotched lilac, with numerous blotches and
spots of red-brown towards the blunt end and are slightly glossy.
Eggs are laid at 1 day intervals and incubation may begin
after the first egg is laid because chicks hatched asynchronously within 1
brood. They hatch between 14-15 days. Development and care of young are
taken care of by both parents. Nestlings are born naked and their first
feathers erupt at around 4 days. The young are brooded and fed by both
parents. At the moment of putting the food into the chick’s mouth a
nictitating membrane covers the adults’ eyes. Parents remove faecal sacs
from the nest. Some co-operative breeding has been sited with 4 adults
attending 1 nest. Each adult visited the nest 1 at a time to feed the
nestling. Apparently 3 of the adults observed had a ‘favourite’ chick,
the other fed all chicks.
The fledging period is around 16 days. However, parental
care may continue for 6 weeks more. A new brood is started soon after the
previous one has fledged, sometimes only 10 days later, males may continue
caring for fledglings. These may beg at the nest after new brood has
hatched. Parental devotion is strong and any human or animal venturing too
close to the nest physically attacked.
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Adults’ foreheads, crown and napes are a grey-brown.
The back is slightly paler grey-brown and the centre of each
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feather is
slightly darker, producing a faint mottled effect. The rump is paler
again. The tail is dark brown, tinged grey and the outermost 3 feather
pairs are tipped white. Wings are a dark greyish brown and the outermost
primary feathers are small. The wing tips have a large light orange panel
occupying the basal half of the trailing web. Underwing coverts are a
dull orange. Cheeks are a buff colour in the centre and almost completely
encircled by a blackish brown frame. The frame is thinnest and sometimes
broken adjacent to the eyes and is thickest top and bottom. The chin and
throat area is an off-white and the malar region is heavily, but narrowly
streaked a blackish brown. Malar streaking joins the heavy, elongate,
teardrop spotting of the breast. The teardrops are near black. The
breast and flank a light buff colour, sometimes faintly tinged orange. The
belly and vent is ground coloured to an off-white to very pale buff. The
intensity of the teardrops diminishes towards the flanks and belly and the
lower belly has only a few spots. The vent is spotless (imagine being
able to say that).
They have brown eyes with a black bill of which the basal
half of the lower mandible is yellow. The legs and feet are a pale pinkish
brown. Juveniles differ from adults in having upper parts with slightly
paler ground colour and white spots on the head and back. Their upper
wing coverts are pale-edged. Spotting below are browner and less intense.
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