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Identification
Length 24-27 cm (9-9½ in); weight 90-138 g
Slim build and long wings.
Yellow bill, darker above at base and blackish tip.
White to off-white breast band.
Thin white margins on secondary feathers and greater coverts, giving a pale wing panel.
White fringes on body contour feathers, giving a 'scaly' appearance (width of fringes varies regionally; see Subspecies, below).
Dark brown legs.
Male black to blackish-brown with a white breast band.
Female browner with greyish flecks and often duller breast band.
Juvenile grey-brown with scaly breast band.
Distribution
Mountains of Europe, southwest Asia, and northern Africa
Breeds in Ireland (rare), northern and western Britain, Scandinavia, northwest Russia (Kola Peninsula), Belgium (Ardennes; rare), the Pyrenees, the Alps and Carpathians, and the Balkans east through Turkey to the Caucasus and Alborz mountains of northern Iran; small numbers also in the Atlas Mountains. Has bred in Denmark and the Faroes. Usually above 1300 m altitude in the Caucasus, above 1000 m in the Alps, above 300 m in Britain, above 250 m in southern Scandinavia, and down to near sea level in northern Scandinavia.
Migration through most of the rest of Europe, including on low ground, but even then still seeks out steep slopes on hills if available - in southern England, more often found on downland slopes inland, rather than on the coast like other migrants.
Winters' in mountains around the Mediterranean (particularly the Atlas Mountains at 1,200-2,700 m) east to southern Iran; small numbers also winter regularly on the higher peaks of the Canary Islands.
Vagrant to Iceland and Jan Mayen in the north, and Israel and Syria to the southeast.
Habitat
Breeds in remote, mountainous rocky outcrops, in thinly wooded or open habitats with a few scattered trees. In winter, strongly tied to juniper (Juniperus) woods, where the juniper cones ('berries') are a major food source.
Diet
Their diet consists mostly of insects, earthworms and other invertebrates, and from late summer into winter also berries, particularly of rowan and bilberry in late summer, and juniper in autumn and winter.
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