Siberian Blue Robin - BirdForum Opus

Male
Photo by Chaiyan
Kha Yai National Park, northeast Thailand, January 2003

Larvivora cyane

Identification

Female
Photo by robby thai
Ko Man Nai Island, Thailand, April 2018

13–14 cm (5-5½ in)
Adult males have all blue upperparts, white underparts with black-bordered throat and breast and pinkish legs.
Females have brownish upperparts, mottled/scaled throat-sides and breast with dull blue on rump and uppertail-coverts.
First-winter male resembles female with some blue on scapulars and coverts.

Distribution

1st Year Male
Photo © by SeeToh
Former Bidadari Cemetery, Singapore, 23 September 2014

Asia to Japan and Indonesia. Accidental vagrant to Alaska with 1 record.

Taxonomy

Recent research suggests that this species belongs to a new genus, uniting the East Asian Erithacus and Luscinia Robins. It's therefore placed in the genus Larvivora.

Subspecies

There are 2 subspecies^[1]:

L. c. cyane:

Breeds south central Siberia (and perhaps adjacent northeastern Kazakhstan) and northern Mongolia; the species winters in southern China, Indochina, the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, but the nonbreeding distributions of the two subspecies are not well differentiated.

L. c. bochaiensis:

Breeds eastern Siberia to northeastern China, Korea and Japan; the species winters in southern China, Indochina, the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, but the nonbreeding distributions of the two subspecies are not well differentiated

Habitat

Coniferous forests with dense undergrowth near water.

Behaviour

The diet consists of insects, such as beetles, bugs and ants, as well as berries and seeds. They feed mostly on the ground.

Gallery

Click on photo for larger image

Female
Photo by Dave B

References

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Lepage D. (2021) [Avibase - https://avibase.ca/A8AA7E19 ]. Retrieved 5 August 2021

List of references

Recommended Citation

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Siberian Blue Robin. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 28 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Siberian_Blue_Robin

External Links

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