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Güldenstädt's Redstart - BirdForum Opus

Photo by Askar Isabekov
Ile-Alatau National Park, Kazakhstan, January 2007

Alternative name: White-winged Redstart

Phoenicurus erythrogastrus

Identification

Photo © by baboon
Qusong County, Shannan, Tibet, China, 15 January 2022

18 cm (7 in)
Male

  • Black face, upper breast, back and wings
  • Red rump and tail
  • Reddish-orange underparts

Distribution

Asia, where resident or moving short distances altitudinally at high altitudes in the Caucasus, the Himalaya, and central Asian mountains. Present in the following countries: Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Mongolia, China, Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Bhutan.

Taxonomy

Regarding the name of this species: about half the world checklists use Güldenstädt's Redstart and the other half use White-winged Redstart.

Subspecies

Two subspecies are recognized[1]:

  • P. e. erythrogastrus:
  • Caucasus Mountains to southern Caspian region of Iran
  • P. e. grandis:

Habitat

High rocky mountain slopes, breeding at 3,600-5,500 metres, descending only to 1,500-4,800 metres in winter. Gravel fields at the bottom of steep cliffs.

Behaviour

Prefers rocky alpine meadows in summer, and sea-buckthorn (Hippophae spp.) thickets in winter, where it feeds on the berries.

Diet

Through the summer their diet is almost entirely insectivorous, particularly moths and spiders; moving on to berries in the winter.

Breeding

They place their nest inside a crevice. It is a bulky structure made from grass and roots. The cup is lined with hair and feathers.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2015. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2015, with updates to August 2015. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Avibase
  3. BF Member observations

Recommended Citation

External Links

1

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.

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