Daurian Redstart

Phoenicurus auroreus

Family: Chats, Old World Flycatchers, and Allies · Status: Vagrant · Size: 15 cm · Conservation: Least Concern

Range

Breeds in southern Siberia, Mongolia, northeastern China, and Korea; winters south along the East Asian coast to southern China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and Indochina.

Identification

Male has silvery-grey crown, nape and upper mantle, black lower mantle and wings apart from a bold white wing-patch, black throat, and orange-rufous underparts, rump, uppertail-coverts, and outertail. Female is mid-brown above and pale brown below, with a smaller white wing-patch and the same rufous rump and tail pattern. Juvenile is dark brown above with buff mottling and buff with brown mottling below, but retains the white wing markings and rufous rump of adults. The white wing-patch, visible in all plumages, immediately separates this species from Black Redstart, which never shows a wing-spot.

Habitat

Open forest edges, secondary scrub, parks, and gardens.

Behaviour

Forages by making short sallies from a perch to the ground or into the air; often perches prominently on exposed vantage points.