The Story
I made this photo of a Black-billed Thrush (Turdus ignobilis) at Spa Ambiental Turística Los Alpes in Ibagué, Tolima, Colombia. It usually forages alone or in pairs and seldom joins mixed-species flocks. It takes fruit mostly in trees and shrubs, but it also feeds on the ground in sheltered spots. Its eggs hatch after about 13 to 16 days. Ibagué, the capital of Tolima, sits on the Central Andes between the Combeima Canyon and the Magdalena valley, near Nevado del Tolima. Los Alpes is one of the civil-society reserves of Ibagué’s nature tourism network, a small property in tropical dry forest at about 950 meters.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400. IUCN lists the Black-billed Thrush as Least Concern, with a stable population.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Black-billed Thrush (Turdus ignobilis) belongs to the family Turdidae (Thrushes and Allies) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2025), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List