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UGANDA BIRD GUIDES
The Spotted Morning-Thrush
a.k.a
cichladusa guttata

If you're planning a Uganda Birdwatching Safari at the end of your business trip to Africa then plan to enjoy the Spotted Morning-Thrush.

The spotted morning-thrush was scientifically named in 1862 by Martin Theodor von Heuglin, a celebrated 19th Century Business Traveller to Africa.

In this section of the Uganda Birding Safari Guide we share with you information about Spotted Morning-Thrush birds in Uganda in order to make your Bird watching tour to Africa even more rewarding.

You will find information about:

Where to find the Spotted Morning-Thrush in Uganda

How to Identify Spotted Morning-Thrush and

Interesting facts about Spotted Morning-Thrush birds

Where to find the Spotted Morning-Thrush in Uganda

You will normally find the Spotted Morning-Thrush sub-tropical or tropical dry forests of Africa, dry savannah and sub-tropical or tropical shrub land.

You're likely to see this Uganda bird creeping in bushes and shrubbery, but you can also find the bird in around gardens and lodges once it decides to become Bold.

The best place to see the Spotted Morning-Thrush in Uganda it is at Murchison Falls National Park.

How you will know that you've seen a Spotted Morning-Thrush

You will find a lively streaky-breasted small thrush which is attractively vociferous.

The Spotted Morning-Thrush resembles a Spotted Ground Thrush but you will find the two birds in totally different areas and thus you will only diffenciate the two birds by their habitat.

The spotted morning-thrush has much narrower white eyebrows and no white in the wings.

It has a sharp small thick brown beak.

It has brown eyes, a white breast band with black spots,this is the feature from which its name is derived, a long brown tail, brown feathers, brown underparts and long brownish legs.

The male and female birds are similar and you will no be able to differenciate them easily however, you will know the juveniles by their paler colours.

This Uganda bird feeds on insects like spiders and caterpillars, and on insects and grain.

Interesting Facts about the Spotted Morning-Thrush

The Spotted Morning-Thrush was named by Martin Theodor von Heuglin during one of his business travels to Africa in 1862.

Heuglin was born in Hirschlanden near Leonberg in Württemberg. His father was a Protestant pastor, and he was trained to be a mining engineer. He was ambitious, however, to become a scientific investigator of unknown regions, and with that object studied the natural sciences, especially zoology.

In 1850 he went to Egypt where he learnt Arabic, and visited the Red Sea and Sinai. In 1852 he accompanied Dr. Christian Reitz, Austrian consul at Khartoum, on a journey to Ethiopia, and after Reitz’s death was appointed his successor in the consulate. While he held this post he travelled in Ethiopia and Kordofan, making a valuable collection of natural history specimens. In 1857 he journeyed through the coast lands of the African side of the Red Sea, and along the Somali coast.

In 1860 he was chosen as leader of an expedition to search for Eduard Vogel, his companions including Werner Munzinger, Gottlob Kinzelbach, and Hermann Steudner. In June 1861 the party landed at Massawa, having instructions to go direct to Khartoum and then to Ouaddai, where Vogel was thought to be detained. Heuglin, accompanied by Hermann Steudner, made a wide detour through Abyssinia and the Galla country, and in consequence the leadership of the expedition was taken from him. He and Steudner reached Khartoum in 1862 and there joined the party organized by Alexandrine Tinné. With her or on their own account, they travelled up the White Nile to Gondokoro and explored a great part of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, where Steudner died of fever on April 10, 1863.

Heuglin returned to Europe at the end of 1864. In 1870 and 1871 he made a valuable series of explorations in Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya; but 1875 found him again in north-east Africa, in the country of the Beni, Amer and northern Abyssinia. He was preparing for an exploration of the island of Socotra, when he died in Stuttgart. It is principally by his zoological, and more especially his ornithological, labours that Heuglin has taken rank as an independent authority.