The common rock thrush (''Monticola saxatilis''), also known as rufous-tailed rock thrush or simply rock thrush, is a chat belonging to the family

Muscicapidae The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, Bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica)'' and Northe ...

. It was formerly placed in the family

Turdidae The thrushes are a passerine bird family, Turdidae, with a worldwide distribution. The family was once much larger before biologists reclassified the former subfamily Saxicolinae, which includes the chats and European robins, as Old World fl ...

. The scientific name is from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

. ''Monticola'' is from ''mons, montis'' "mountain", and ''colere'', "to dwell", and ''saxatilis'' means "rock-frequenting", from ''saxum'', "stone" .. It breeds in southern

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

across

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

to northern China. This species is strongly migratory, all populations wintering in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

south of the Sahara. It is an uncommon visitor to northern Europe. Its range has contracted somewhat at the periphery in recent decades due to

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

. For example, in the early 20th century it bred in the Jura Krakowsko-Częstochowska (

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

) where none occur today,Tomek, Teresa & Bocheński, Zygmunt (2005):
Weichselian and Holocene bird remains from Komarowa Cave, Central Poland
. ''Acta zoologica cracoviensia'' 48A(1-2): 43-65. but it is not considered globally

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

Description

This is a medium-sized but stocky thrush 17–20 cm in length. The summer male is unmistakable, with a blue-grey head, orange underparts and outer tail feathers, dark brown wings and white back. Females and immatures are much less striking, with dark brown scaly upperparts, and paler brown scaly underparts. The outer tail

feathers Feathers are epidermal growths that form a distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on both avian (bird) and some non-avian dinosaurs and other archosaurs. They are the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates and a premier ...

are reddish, like the male.Clement, Peter & Hathaway, Ren (2000): ''Thrushes''.

Christopher Helm Christopher Alexander Roger Helm (born Dundee, 1 February 1937 – 20 January 2007) was a Scottish book publisher, notably of ornithology related titles, including the '' Helm Identification Guides''. Born in Dundee, he was raised in Forfar ...

, London.

Behaviour and ecology

This species breeds in open dry hilly areas, usually above 1500 m. It

nests A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materi ...

in rock cavities, laying 4–5

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s. It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...

, berries and small reptiles. The male common rock thrush has a clear and tuneful song.

Gallery

File:Common rock thrush.jpg, Common rock thrush, Boulmane de Dades, Morocco File:Monticola saxatilis MWNH 1830.JPG, Eggs, Collection

Museum Wiesbaden The Museum Wiesbaden is a two-branch museum of art and natural history in the Hessian capital of Wiesbaden, Germany. It is one of the three Hessian State museums, in addition to the museums in Kassel and Darmstadt. History The foundation o ...

References

External links

*
Oiseaux
Photos, map, text.
Ageing and sexing (PDF; 1.2 MB) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael HeinzeHandbook of the Birds of the WorldMacaulay Library
direct lin
here
{{Taxonbar, from=Q235057 common rock thrush Birds of Eurasia Birds of East Africa common rock thrush Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus