Himalayan Rubythroat

Identificazione

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. 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.<p>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. 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.

Tassonomia

The first formal description of the Himalayan rubythroat was by the English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould in 1837. He coined the binomial name Calliope pectoralis. The species was given the English name "white-tailed rubythroat" and moved to the genus Luscinia. A large molecular phylogenetic study published in 2010 found that the genus Luscinia was not monophyletic. The genus was therefore split and several species including the white-tailed rubythroat were moved to the reinstated genus Calliope. Another study published in 2016 compared the mitochondrial DNA, vocalization and morphology of several Calliope pectoralis subspecies. Based on their results the authors recommended that C. p. tschebaiewi be promoted to species rank with the English name Chinese rubythroat. At the same time the English name "white-tailed rubythroat" was changed to Himalayan rubythroat.<p>There are three subspecies:

Nome scientifico

Calliope pectoralis

Autorità

Gould, 1837

Ordine

Passeriformi

Famiglia

Muscicapidae

Genere

Calliope

Areale e 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. Its natural habitat is open woodland and scrub. 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. A single bird was observed by Col Rohit Sharma at Wan Sanctuary, Melghat Tiger Reserve on 29 January 2023 during first bird survey in the reserve.

Areale riproduttivo

OR : Tien Shan to Himalayas

Areale non riproduttivo

Parte settentrionale della regione orientale (OR)

Migrazione

Migratori completi

Comportamento

Comportamento migratorio: Migratori completi.

Conservazione

Tendenza della popolazione: stabile.

Tendenza della popolazione

stabile