Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush

The chestnut-bellied rock thrush (Monticola rufiventris) is a species of passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. Description The chestnut-bellied rock thrush is 21–23 cm (8. 3–9. 1 in) in overall length and weighs 48–61 g (1. 7–2. 2 oz). The male has a blue-grey crown and upperparts with darker lores and throat. The undersides are deep chestnut. (Wikipedia, general species account).

The female has dull grey-brown upperparts and scalloped slate-grey with buffy-white underparts. The eyering and the post-auricular patch are whitish-buff. Habitat Its natural habitat is temperate forests. It is an altitudanal migrant and experiences Zugunruhe strongly the night before migration. Range It is native to the Himalayas, Purvanchal Range and southern China ; some birds winter to northern Indochina. Taxonomy The chestnut-bellied rock thrush was formally described in 1832 by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Vigors under the binomial name Turdus erythogaster.