Alternative name: Ring Ousel
- Turdus torquatus
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.
Similar species
Eurasian Blackbird is similar in brief appearance, in particular beware leucistic Blackbirds, though these usually lack the pale wing panel and often have additional white patches not shown by Ring Ouzels. Eurasian Blackbird is also dumpier and shorter-winged. Juveniles of both species are very similar, but again the structural differences can help. Subspecies T. t. amicorum approaches Grey-winged Blackbird in wing pattern, though the latter lacks the white 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.
Taxonomy
Closest relatives may be the Grey-winged and White-collared Blackbirds, which occur in the Himalaya.
Subspecies
There are three subspecies[1]:
- T. t. torquatus (Northern):
- Scandinavia, Britain, Ireland and northwestern Russia; winters northwest Africa.
- Darkest subspecies, with males nearly black with minimal scaling on body feathers and narrow secondary fringes.
- T. t. alpestris (Alpine):
- Mountains of central and southern Europe; winters to Asia Minor and northwest Africa.
- Body feathers with very obvious scaling; secondary fringes also more obvious.
- T. t. amicorum (Caucasian):
-
- Body feathers as T. t. torquatus; secondary fringes very broad, making a near-solid light grey or white panel.
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.
Behaviour
Almost always found on steep slopes, where it uses the contours adeptly to escape predators like Peregrine Falcons with ease; usually only on flat ground on migration when no slopes available. Strongly territorial and generally fairly solitary in summer, but may be found in small loose flocks on migration and in winter.
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.
Breeding
They construct a cup-shaped nest in bushes or amongst rocks, laying several pale blue eggs, mottled with brown.
Flight
Rapid and direct, often steeply up or down slopes. Hops or runs.
Vocalisation
Call: a hard, dry "tuk" or "tuk-tuk-tuk", lacking the more metallic chinking tones of Eurasian Blackbird
Song: "tcheru", "tchvi", and "ti-cho-o" repeated several times, an evocative sound of desolate mountain slopes.
References
- Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2023. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2023. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Birdwatchers Pocket Guide ISBN 1-85732-804-3
- Collins Pocket Guide to British Birds 1966
- Collins Field Guide 5th Edition
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Ring Ouzel. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 26 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Ring_Ouzel
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
