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PLEASE! If you see any mistakes, I'm 100% sure that I have wrongly identified some birds.
So please let me know on my guestbook at the bottom of the page
So please let me know on my guestbook at the bottom of the page
 
The Siberian Stonechat or Asian stonechat (Saxicola maurus) is a recently validated species of the Old World flycatcher family (Muscicapidae). Like the other thrush-like flycatchers, it was often placed in the Turdidae in the past. It breeds in temperate Asia and easternmost Europe and winters in the Old World tropics. Distribution and ecology The breeding range covers most of temperate Asia, from about latitude 71°N in Siberia south to the Himalaya and southwest China, and west to eastern Turkey and the Caspian Sea area. It also breeds in the far northeast of Europe, mainly in Russia but occasionally as far west as Finland. The wintering range of the migratory bird is from southern Japan south to Thailand and India, and west to northeast Africa. On migration, small numbers reach as far west as western Europe, and exceptionally as far east as Alaska in North America. The Siberian stonechat is insectivorous. It breeds in open rough scrubland or rough grassland with scattered shrubs, from sea level to about 4,000 m ASL or more. The birds seem to avoid even cool temperate conditions and stay up north only during the hot continental summer. In the montane regions of the Himalaya foothills of Bhutan, migrants can on occasion be seen foraging in fields and pastures more than 2,000 m ASL, but most move further down and south to winter in tropical regions. Though it is not considered a distinct species by the IUCN yet, it is widespread and common and would not be considered a threatened species.   Range map from www.oiseaux.net - Ornithological Portal Oiseaux.net
www.oiseaux.net is one of those MUST visit pages if you're in to bird watching. You can find just about everything there
Description, systematics and taxonomy It resembles its closest living relative the European Stonechat (S. rubicola), but is typically darker above and paler below, with a white rump and whiter underparts with less orange on the breast. The male in breeding plumage has black upperparts and head (lacking the brownish tones of the European Stonechat), a conspicuous white collar, scapular patch and rump, and a restricted area of orange on the throat. The female has pale brown upperparts and head, white neck patches (not a full collar), and a pale, unstreaked pinkish-yellow rump. Males in winter plumage are intermediate between summer males and females, with a supercilium resembling the Whinchat (S. rubetra); from this species and the female it can be distinguished by the full white collar. If seen at close distance, it can be recognized that its primary remiges are distinctly longer than in S. rubicola. In this, it closely resembles the Whinchat, which like S. maurus is adapted to long-distance migrations. The male has a clicking call, like two pebbles knocked together. The song is high and twittering like the dunnock (Prunella modularis), an unrelated passeridan songbird belonging to the Passeroidea. Systematics and taxonomy There are five or six subspecies, with S. m. maurus (described above) and the distinct but similar S. m. stejnegeri found across northern and central Asia. The southern S. m. variegatus (west of the Caspian Sea), S. m. armenicus (eastern Turkey to Iran), S. m. indicus (Himalaya) and the Turkestan stonechat S. m. przewalskii (southwest China) are distinguished by larger white areas on the plumage. In the past, S. maurus was usually included in S. torquatus as part of the "common stonechat", but that scientific name nowadays is restricted to the African stonechat. Analysis of mtDNA cytochrome b sequence and nDNA microsatellite fingerprinting data, though not unequivocal, together with the evidence from morphology, behaviour and biogeography confirms the suspicion that the present bird is a distinct species. The European Stonechat is its western sister species in the Eurasian lineage of stonechats; their ancestors separated during the Late Pliocene or Early Pleistocene, roughly 1.5-2.5 million years ago at the onset of the Quaternary glaciation. Its scientific name means "dark rock-dweller". Saxicola derives from Latin saxum "rock" + incola "inhabitant"; maurus is Latinized from Greek maúros (μαύρος) "black" (cf. "moor"), in reference to the upperpart colour as compared to S. rubicola. Listen to the Siberian Stonechat
Sound from www.xeno-canto.org
Sound from www.xeno-canto.org
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Sighted: (Date of first photo that I could use) 8th of January 2016 Location: Hiran River, Sasan Gir, India Among others I have used Peter Ericsson's web page Birds of Thailand These galleries contain 668 species of the Birds of Thailand and have been of a great help to identify some of the birds as the birds in Thailand and India are, well, many of them are the same. I have had most help from my friend, the bird pal I met at Suan Rot Fai. Sending pictures of birds I have not been able to identify to him via Line. 3 minutes later he and he have managed to identify most of the birds I have had problems with. THANKS! Visit his web page m☥lever for his beautiful pictures. PLEASE! As I'm a first time birdwatcher bear in mind that some of the bird can be wrongly named. I have bought book and I confirm on the internet to get the right identity on the birds I take pictures off. But there can still be mistakes.  Siberian Stonechat - 8 January 2016 - Hiran River, Sasan Gir
 Siberian Stonechat - 8 January 2016 - Hiran River, Sasan Gir
 Siberian Stonechat - 8 January 2016 - Hiran River, Sasan Gir
 Siberian Stonechat - 12 January 2016 - Bijrani Zone at Jim Corbett National Park
 Siberian Stonechat - 12 January 2016 - Bijrani Zone at Jim Corbett National Park
 Siberian Stonechat - 12 January 2016 - Bijrani Zone at Jim Corbett National Park
PLEASE! If I have made any mistakes identifying any bird, PLEASE let me know on my guestbook 
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