White-backed Thrush

The white-backed thrush, or Kessler's thrush, is a large thrush about 28cm long, roughly the size of a mistle thrush. Males have a black head, wings and tail and a pink body, darker below and nearly white on the back, and females are duller with a dark brown head and greyer pink tones. It was described by Przewalski in 1876 (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in rocky alpine scrub at about 3,600 to 4,500m in central China, moving in winter to lower slopes around 2,100m. It is omnivorous, eating insects, earthworms and berries, with juniper cones important in winter, and it is gregarious, often joining flocks of dusky and red-throated thrushes. In Nepal it is a scarce winter visitor, in the east (Wikipedia, general species account).