The Altai accentor (''Prunella himalayana'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the family

Prunellidae The accentors are a genus of birds in the family Prunellidae, which is endemic to the Old World. This small group of closely related passerines are all in the genus ''Prunella''. All but the dunnock and the Japanese accentor are inhabitants of th ...

. It is also known as the rufous-streaked accentor or Himalayan accentor. It breeds in the Altai Mountains of western

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

; it winters in the southern

Tian Shan The Tian Shan,, , otk, 𐰴𐰣 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, , tr, Tanrı Dağı, mn, Тэнгэр уул, , ug, تەڭرىتاغ, , , kk, Тәңіртауы / Алатау, , , ky, Теңир-Тоо / Ала-Тоо, , , uz, Tyan-Shan / Tangritog‘ ...

and Himalayan ranges.

Taxonomy

The Altai accentor was described by the English zoologist Edward Blyth in 1842 and given the binomial name ''Accentor himalayanus''. The Altai accentor is now placed in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

'' Prunella'' that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Vieillot in 1816. The species is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

. This species, along with the

alpine accentor The alpine accentor (''Prunella collaris'') is a small passerine bird in the family Prunellidae, which is native to Eurasia and North Africa. Taxonomy The Alpine accentor was described by the Austria naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 176 ...

, is sometimes separated from the other accentors into the genus ''Laiscopus''.HBW volume 10, page 496

Gallery

File:Altai accentor sitting.jpg, Altai accentor in Pangot File:Altai accentor flock.jpg, Flock of Altai accentor in flight. From Pangot, Uttarakhand, India File:Altai Accentor Gnathang Valley Sikkim 28.04.2019.jpg, highly camouflaged when on ground at Gnathang Valley, Sikkim, India File:Altai Accentor in Sikkim India.jpg, Taken at Gnathang, Sikkim, India File:Prunella himalayana by John Gould.jpg, Painting by

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, ...

References

External links

Xeno-canto: audio recordings of the Altai accentor

Altai accentor The Altai accentor (''Prunella himalayana'') is a species of bird in the family Prunellidae. It is also known as the rufous-streaked accentor or Himalayan accentor. It breeds in the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia; it winters in the southern ...

Birds of Mongolia

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot

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