Mistle Thrush - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

This species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 under its current scientific name. The English name refers to its mistletoe eating, as does the scientific name, which is derived from the Latin words Turdus, "thrush", and viscivorus meaning "mistletoe eater".

A recent molecular study places the Mistle Thrush's closest relatives as the similarly plumaged Song Thrush (T. philomelos) and the Chinese Thrush (T. mupinensis), all three species early offshoots from the main Turdus radiation around the world, and hence only distantly related to other European species such as the Common Blackbird (T. merula).