White-tailed rubythroat

White-tailed rubythroat
Male of the nominate subspecies (Dehradun, India)
Conservation status

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Muscicapidae
Genus: Luscinia
Species: L. pectoralis
Binomial name
Luscinia pectoralis
(Gould, 1837)
Subspecies
  • L. p. pectoralis (Gould, 1837)
  • L. p. bailloni Severtzov 1873
  • L. p. confusa Hartert 1910
  • L. p. tschebaiewi (Prjevalsky, 1876)
      L. p. tschebaiewi breeding range
      breeding range of other populations
      Winter range

The white-tailed rubythroat or Himalayan rubythroat (Luscinia pectoralis) is a species of bird in the Muscicapidae family. It is closely related to the Siberian rubythroat which however lacks the distinctive white tail-tips and white tail bases. It is found along the Himalayan ranges from Afghanistan to Burma. Several subspecies are recognized across its wide range.

Description

Male of ssp. ballioni (Kazakhstan)

The male is slaty brown above with a white forehead and supercilium. The wings are brownish and the tail is blackish with white base and tips. The sides of the throat and breast are black and the centre of the chin and throat is scarlet. Each of the black feathers on the breast is narrowly fringed with grey.[2] The belly and vent are white. The female is dull, brownish grey above with a diffuse supercilium and smoky underparts. The centre of the throat is whitish and a short whitish moustachial stripe is present in the eastern populations.[2]

The subspecies found in Afghanistan and the Tien Shans, ballioni, has the male paler than the nominate subspecies of the western Himalayas. In the central and eastern Himalayas of Sikkim and Bhutan, confusa, is similar but has the male blacker above with a more prominent white forehead. The edge of the Tibetan plateau in Ladakh and to the east up to Gansu is the breeding range of subspecies tschebaiewi which winters in Assam and Sikkim. It has a face pattern that resembles that of the Siberian rubythroat and a strong white submoustachial streak. The thin supercila over the eyes do not meet at the forehead. Being rather distinctive and possibly closer to the Siberian rubythroat, the taxonomy and placement of this population as well as the overall treatment of this species pair has been questioned.[3][4][5][6][7]

In the past the species has been included in the genera Erithacus and Calliope.[8] A 2010 study based on both nuclear and mitochondrial sequences found a clade formed by L. pectoralis, L. calliope and L. pectardens which is well separated from others included in Luscinia. The authors suggested that they may be reinstated in the genus Calliope.[9]

Distribution and habitat

It is found in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, ranging across Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The move up north and into higher altitudes in summer and move into lower elevations to the south in winter. Subspecies ballioni is found in the western and northern part of its range while the nominate population occurs along the western and central Himalayas in India. Subspecies confusa which may well represent clinal variation in the darkness of the upper plumage of the male is found from Sikkim to Assam. Subspecies tschebaiewi which breeds along the edge of the Tibetan plateau winters to its south from Nepal to Assam.[6][10] Its natural habitat is open woodland and scrub.[3] They may sometimes occur in summer on the lower plains but a record from further south at Londa near Goa has been determined as a misidentified Siberian rubythroat.[11][12]

Behaviour and ecology

Adults are shy although sometimes perching in the open. They are usually seen singly or in pairs during the breeding season. They feed mainly on small insects including beetles and ants. During the beeding season the male sings through the day from the top of an exposed perch. The song is a series of squeaky notes with a great deal of variation. Females produce an upward inflected whistle that follows a short and gruff note. The alarm call is a sharp yapping skyap.[3][13]

1877 illustration of L. p. tschebaiewi

In the Tien Shan region, the white-tailed rubythroat is found in thickets of juniper elfin at altitudes of 2500 to 2700 m on gently sloping land. The breeding season is in summer and nests are built in shrubs near dense stands of trees. The nest is placed in the middle of a shrub and sometimes on the ground in a dense tussock. The typical nest is a loose and large ball like with an entrance on the side but is sometimes cup like with an open top. The nest is built mainly by the female. A clutch of 4 to 6 eggs is laid. The eggs are greenish blue with rusty dots forming a ring near the broad end. Incubation is mostly by the female but the nestlings are fed by both parents. The eggs hatch after around 14 days and the young leave the nest when they fledge after about 16 days.[14] The parents forage close to the nest and the young are mainly fed with hairy caterpillars. Rubythroats have been observed to abandon their nest when a cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) laid an egg in their nest. Martens and stoats sometimes destroy nests and prey on the young.[13]

In culture

The summer song of the male inspired the 1995 composition Summoning Dawn by Scottish composer and birdcall recorder Magnus Robb who was inspired by the tune he noticed by playing the calls at a fourth of its normal speed.[15]

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Luscinia pectoralis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ali S & S D Ripley (1997). Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan 8 (2 ed.). New Delhi: Oxford University Press. pp. 225–229.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Rasmussen PC & JC Anderton (2005). Birds of South Asia. Volume 2. Washington DC and Barcelona: Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions. pp. 391–392.
  4. ↑ Deignan, HG; RA Paynter, Jr;S D Ripley (1964). Mayr E & R A Paynter, Jr, ed. Check-list of Birds of the World. Volume 10. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. pp. 44–45.
  5. ↑ Hartert, E (1910). Die Vogel der palaearktischen Fauna. Band 1. Berlin: Verlag von R. Friedlaender und Sohn. pp. 739–740.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Baker, ECS (1924). Fauna of British India. Birds. Volume 2 (2 ed.). London: Taylor and Francis. pp. 92–95.
  7. ↑ Prjevalsky, N (1877). "The birds of Mongolia, the Tangut Country and the Solitudes of Northern Tibet". In Rowley, George Dawson. Ornithological Miscellany. Volume. London: Trubner and Co. pp. 138–204.
  8. ↑ Ripley SD (1952). "The Thrushes". Postilla 13: 1–48.
  9. ↑ Sangster G; Per Alström; Emma Forsmark; Urban Olsson (2010). "Multi-locus phylogenetic analysis of Old World chats and flycatchers reveals extensive paraphyly at family, subfamily and genus level (Aves: Muscicapidae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 57 (1): 380–392. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2010.07.008. PMID 20656044.
  10. ↑ Inskipp, C & Inskipp T (1985). A guide to the birds of Nepal (2 ed.). London: Christopher Helm. p. 239.
  11. ↑ Prasad, Anand (2006). "Himalayan (White-tailed) Rubythroat Luscinia pectoralis at Londa, Karnataka, a deletion". Indian Birds 2 (1): 12.
  12. ↑ Oates, Eugene W. (1890). Fauna of British India. Birds. Volume 2. London: Taylor and Francis. pp. 103–104.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Gavrilov EI & Kovshar AF (1970). "Breeding biology of the Himalayan Rubythroat, Erithacus pectoralis (Gould) in the Tien Shan". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 67 (1): 14–25.
  14. ↑ Badyaev, AV & CK Ghalambor (2001). "Evolution of life histories along elevation gradients: Trade-off between parental care and fecundity". Ecology 82 (10): 2948–2960. doi:10.1890/0012-9658(2001)082[2948:EOLHAE]2.0.CO;2.
  15. ↑ Doolitte, Emily (2008). "Crickets in the concert hall: A history of animals in western music". TRANS Revista Transcultural de Musica 12.

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