Gray-cheeked Thrush

How to find it

Fruiting bushes and trees are where most birders look for it on migration, because it and other thrushes gather there to feed. Check mixed flocks and look in covered understory rather than on open ground. Learning the call note helps a lot. At Manzanillo, a birder listens on October nights for migrant thrushes calling overhead, and cloudy, quiet nights after 10 pm work best. The Gray-cheeked's call is higher and more abrupt than those of the many Swainson's Thrushes around it.

How to recognise it

This is a plain thrush, and the plainness is the clue. Look for:

- olive-brown upperparts

- a grayish face and cheeks

- a dark-spotted grayish breast

- gray flanks

- a white belly

- pink legs

It measures 15 to 17 cm. Of its look-alikes it is the plainest. It lacks the Veery's warm tones, the Hermit Thrush's russet tail and the Swainson's Thrush's buffy eyering. Swainson's is the most common migrant thrush in Costa Rica and the likeliest confusion: it has a buff eye ring and buff cheeks, while this species has gray cheeks and no eye ring.

What it sounds like

Recording: Donald Hampton, CC BY-SA 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It is shy and usually stays in covered understory, in the middle or lower levels but above the ground. On migration it joins mixed flocks and visits fruiting trees. It is furtive and loves tangled thickets, and it slips away as a birder approaches.

Fruit matters a great deal to it here. Droppings from migrants caught on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast in fall held about 60% fruit by volume, and capture peaks matched the peak in ripe fruit there.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it favors brushy edges along streams, open groves, tall second growth and old cacao plantations. During migration it can turn up almost anywhere.

It is mostly found on the Caribbean slope and up to about 1,500 m in the central highlands. It is also a casual winter resident in the lowlands of both the Caribbean and Pacific slopes.

When to see it

It passes through in autumn, from early October to mid-November.

Similar birds

Swainson's Thrush has a buff eye ring and buff cheeks, while this species has gray cheeks and no eye ring. Bicknell's Thrush is nearly identical, only slightly larger, with a different song. Voice is the most reliable way to separate the two.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The AOCR gives the Spanish name Zorzal Carigrís, with the nickname Conchita in brackets. Costa Rican birders also use Zorzalito Carigrís. Conchita is also used for the very similar Swainson's Thrush, so the nickname is shared. Of the eight thrushes recorded in Costa Rica, four are migrants.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a migrant (M), and worldwide it is Least Concern because its range is very large.

Photography tips

Because it is furtive, patience at a fruiting tree gives you a better chance than chasing it through thickets. Watch mixed flocks and the covered understory at middle or lower levels.