Song thrush "thrush." Mavis (Μαβής) can also mean "purple" in Greek. A recent molecular study indicates that the song thrush's closest relatives are the similarly plumaged mistle thrush ("T. viscivorus") and Chinese thrush ("T. mupinensis"); these three species are early offshoots from the lineage of "Turdus" thrushes before they diversified and spread across the globe, and hence are less closely related to other European thrush species such as the blackbird ("T. merula"). The song thrush has three subspecies, with the nominate subspecies, "T. p. philomelos", covering the majority of the species' range. "T. p. hebridensis", described by British ornithologist William Eagle Clarke
Naumann's thrush female is fairly similar to the male, but immatures have a weaker patterning. The song of Naumann's thrush may differ from the simple fluted or whistling redwing-like song of dusky thrush. The genus name comes from Latin "Turdus", "thrush", and the species and English names commemorate the German naturalist Johann Andreas Naumann. Naumann's thrush Naumann's thrush ("Turdus naumanni") is a member of the thrush family Turdidae which breeds eastwards from central Siberia. It is closely related to the more northerly breeding dusky thrush "T. eunomus"; the two have often been regarded as conspecific. This species breeds in open woodland areas;