Radde's Accentor
Prunella ocularis
Medium-sized accentor. Very skulking and often shy. Note the off-white eyebrow, lightly streaked neck sides, cold-toned back, and ochre-buff underparts with a paler whitish belly. Breeds in rocky alpine habitats near treeline in bushes and scrub. Song is similar to that of a Black Redstart, a clear whistle and rattle. Call is a high-pitched clear note.
Taxonomy
Radde's accentor was described by the German naturalist Gustav Radde in 1884 from a specimen collected in the Talysh Mountains near the Azerbaijan-Iran border. He coined the binomial name Accentor ocularis. It is now placed in the genus Prunella that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816. The species is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Prunella ocularis
- Authority
- (Radde, 1884)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Prunellidae
- Genus
- Prunella
Range and habitat
- Breeding range
- PAL : montane c Turkey e through s Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and s to se Iran; disjunctly far w Yemen
- Non-breeding range
- to the Levant and ne Arabian Pen.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Bare-faced Go-away-bird
Crinifer personatus
Unusual gray turaco with a bushy crest and a mostly white head and breast. Found in moist savanna, woodland, shrubby cultivation, and gardens. Usually in small groups. Loud and vocal. The calls are a single hollow “khweow” and a maniacal series of cackles and whines given by multiple birds in chorus. Similar in shape to White-bellied Go-away-bird and Eastern Plantain-eater, but easily separated by the white collar and lack of white in the wings and tail.
Przevalski's Pinktail
Urocynchramus pylzowi
The Przevalksi’s Pinktail is the only member of its family. It looks like a cross between a rosefinch and a bunting, but it isn’t closely related to either. Male is streaky brown above with a bright pink flush extending from the throat down to the tail sides. Female is streaky brown all over. Both sexes may be confused with rosefinches, but the pinktail is more slender, smaller-billed, and longer-tailed. Male gives a chattering song, sometimes while in flight. Inhabits shrubby highland hillsides.
Chinese Babax
Pterorhinus lanceolatus
A large and boldly-marked but secretive babbler of hilly and mountainous regions, where it sticks to dense shrubbery. Note white eyes, streaky brown plumage, and dark chestnut “moustache” stripes on each side of the throat. Pops into the open to sing, but timid and soon disappears back into the undergrowth.
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