Its length is 20 cm (7.9 in), and it weighs 41–48 g (1.4–1.7 oz).[4] The sexes are alike. The forehead and cheeks are deep rufous-chestnut. The back is rufous or orange-brown. The tail is brown. The median coverts have white spots, and the greater coverts are olive-black. The flight feathers are dark brown. On the underwings, the axillaries are whitish, the coverts are grey-brown, and there is a white band on the primaries and secondaries. The throat and breast are deep rufous-orange. The vent and undertail coverts are white. The legs are pinkish to whitish. The beak is black. There is a broken white eye-ring.[4] The immature has a darker crown, dark patches on its face and a horn-brown beak, and its breast and upper belly have mottles or spots.[4]
Behavior
It is not migratory, but may move locally.[1] Its song is loud, mellow phrases, going up and down the scale.[4] It forages on the ground, eating insects and slugs.[4] Little is known about its breeding. Its eggs are undescribed.[6] The breeding season is probably the rainy season and the late dry season.[1] A nest made of dry grasses and strips and fibres of plants was found in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in 1998. Squirrels later destroyed the nest.[4] In 2007, a cup-shaped nest made of liverworts and ferns was found in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. It was built on a branch of a tree and contained three nestlings.[6]
Status
The population size of Oberländer's ground thrush is not known but may be very small.[1] It is declining because of habitat loss. The species is threatened by forest degradation and deforestation.[1] The IUCN Red List has listed the species as near threatened because it has a small, threatened range and possibly a very small population.[1]
^Jobling, J. A. "Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology". In del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D. A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions.
