From Opus

Photo by rayh
Location: East Yorkshire

Phoenicurus ochruros

Identification

13-14.5 cm. Male - grey-black upperparts, sooty black breast and face, bold white wing patch, rusty-red rump and tail. Female - duller, brown-grey with rust-red rump and tail. In the winter the male looks like the female.

Male semirufus
Photo by lior kislev
Hermon mt , Golan, Israel, June 2008

Distribution

Breeds in Iberia and France east to the Baltic States, Belarus and Ukraine, Balkans and Greece, much of Turkey and the Caucasus. Also breeds in scattered outposts around edges of main range in south-east England (more rarely in central and northern England), Denmark and southern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland, in North-West Africa and in scattered parts of the Middle East. In the Mediterranean breeds on Sicily and small numbers have bred on Corsica since the 1980s.

Resident in the south and some birds resident in Britain and Central Europe, but further north and east migratory, wintering chiefly around the Mediterranean and in the Middle East.

Vagrants recorded north to Iceland and the Faroes and also on Madeira and the Azores.

Taxonomy

Several separable races occur in the region differing mainly in extent of black/grey in plumage of male. They fall into 2 groups, the largely black western races and the red-bellied birds from the east.

The race found in Britain and over most of Europe is gibraltariensis replaced by aterrimus in Iberia and Morocco, blacker above and below with more contrasting grey crown.

P.o.semirufus from the Middle East has little or no white wing patch and rust-red lower breast and belly. phoenicuroides from Central Asia, wintering in the Middle East is similar but paler above and often with white forehead.

Race rufiventris breeding from Turkmenistan to China resembles other eastern races but is larger and blacker above.

The nominate race from eastern Turkey and the Caucasus is intermediate between the 2 groups.

Female
Photo by mike nesbitt
N Wales, April 2009

Race semirufus has occurred as a vagrant west to France and phoenicuroides has been recorded in the Netherlands and Guernsey.

Habitat

Found on cliffs, rocky slopes, screes and boulder-strewn areas from sea-level up to the snowline. Formerly confined to rocky areas on coasts and in mountains but has adapted to living alongside man and has spread into many lowland areas. Now breeds widely in villages and towns and on patches of waste-ground, railway yards and similar areas in many large cities.

Behaviour

Diet

The diet includes insects, spiders, worms, berries and seeds.

Breeding

It nests in crevices or holes in buildings.

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