Abyssinian Ground-Thrush

The Abyssinian ground thrush is an attractive but rather secretive species. The adults are a deep rufous orange on the head and face with a distinct white eye ring, the orange colour becomes les rufous on the breast and flanks and the upperparts are olive brown except for the orange-brown rump and tail. On the folded wing it shows two prominent white wingbars from the tips to the coverts. Immature birds tend to be paler and duller than the adults. They measure 19–20 cm (7.5–7.9 in) in length and weigh 43–65 g (1.5–2.3 oz).

Voice. The contact call of the Abyssinian ground thrush is a high pitched "tseep", the song is a typical thrush like melodious series of whistled phrases rendered in Sinclair & Ryan as "chee-cheeleeroo-chruup".

There are six currently recognised subspecies of Abyssinian ground thrush and they are listed below with their distributions:

Geokichla piaggiae hadii (Macdonald, 1940): South Sudan in the Imatong and Dongotona Mountains. Geokichla piaggiae piaggiae (Bouvier, 1877): eastern South Sudan in the Boma Plateau and Ethiopia south to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and northern and western Kenya. Geokichla piaggiae ruwenzorii (Prigogine, 1985): Ruwenzori Mountains in western Uganda. Geokichla piaggiae tanganjicae (Sassi, 1914): Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, south western Uganda, Rwanda and northern Burundi. Geokichla piaggiae kilimensis (Neumann, 1900): Central and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. Geokichla piaggiae rowei (C. H. B. Grant & Mackworth-Praed, 1937): Northern Tanzania.