Brown Dipper

Subspecies tenuirostris
Photo © by Marc Guyt
Near Sat Tal, India, 30 January 2005

Cinclus pallasii

Identification

22cm (8¾ in)

• Overall brown plumage
• Darker wings and tail
• Dark iris and bill

Distribution

Subspecies tenuirostris
Photo © by Alok Tewari
Dist. Nainital, Alt.5000 ft., Uttarakhand Himalayas, India, 11 November 2013

Asia: found in Russia, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, China, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Eastern and Western Himalayas, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Korea, Japan, Taiwan
Southeast Asia: Indochina, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand

Taxonomy

Subspecies

There are 3 subspecies^[1]:

• C. p. tenuirostris:

• Mountains of central Asia and Himalayas

• C. p. dorjei:

• Mountains of eastern Sikkim, Assam, eastern Tibet, northern Myanmar and northern Thailand

• C. p. pallasii:

• Mountains of north-eastern Asia, Japan, eastern and central China, Taiwan, northern Thailand, northern Vietnam

A fourth subspecies, C. p. marila confined to North-eastern India (Khasi Hills) is no longer recognized.

Habitat

Fast flowing montane forest rivers, 1500-3200 m.

Behaviour

Diet

It feeds from the bottom of rivers; the diet includes aquatic insect larvae, crabs and fish.

Breeding

It nests on rocks; both parents make the nest from grass, roots, moss and is lined with leaves. The clutch of 3-5 eggs is incubated by the female for 19-20 days, though both parents feed the young.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2018. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2018. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Avibase
3. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, March 4). Brown dipper. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 08:02, April 17, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brown_dipper&oldid=886132509
4. BirdForum Member observations
5. Ormerod, S., Tyler, S. & Bonan, A. (2019). Brown Dipper (Cinclus pallasii). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/58088 on 11 April 2019).

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Brown Dipper. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 18 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Brown_Dipper

External Links

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