Stejneger's stonechat

Stejneger's stonechat (Saxicola stejnegeri) is a species of stonechat native to eastern Asia. It breeds in central and eastern Siberia, Japan, Korea, northeastern China, and eastern Mongolia, and migrates south to southern China and Indochina in winter.[1]

Female in wintering range, Hong Kong.

Stejneger's stonechat
Male, eastern Hokkaido, Japan
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Muscicapidae
Genus: Saxicola
Species:
S. stejnegeri
Binomial name
Saxicola stejnegeri
(Parrot, 1908)
Synonyms

See text

It is a small bird 11.5–13 cm long, very closely similar to the Siberian stonechat in both plumage and behaviour, differing in only small details, notably having a slightly broader-based bill 4.7–5.7 mm wide (4.0–4.9 mm wide in Siberian stonechat) and slightly less white on the rump.[2]

Vagrants have been reported west to Great Britain,[3] east to Alaska,[1] and south to Borneo.[1]

Taxonomy

Stejneger's stonechat was generally considered a subspecies of either common stonechat (as Saxicola torquatus stejnegeri[2]) or Siberian stonechat (as Saxicola maurus stejnegeri,[1]), but recent genetic evidence has shown that it is distinct, in a basal position in the common stonechat superspecies;[4] on which basis it is now accepted as a distinct species.[5]

The common name and Latin binomial commemorate the Norwegian ornithologist Leonhard Hess Stejneger.

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References
  1. Urquhart, E., & Bowley, A. (2002): Stonechats. A Guide to the Genus Saxicola. Christopher Helm, London. ISBN 0-7136-6024-4
  2. Svensson, L. (1992). Identification Guide to European Passerines. British Trust for Ornithology, Thetford. ISBN 91-630-1118-2.
  3. Robertson, I. S. (1977). Identification and European status of eastern Stonechats. British Birds 70: 237-245.
  4. Zink, R.M., Pavlova, A., Drovetski, S. V., Wink, M., & Rohwer, S. (2009). Taxonomic status and evolutionary history of the Saxicola torquata complex. Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution 52: 769-773. Abstract.
  5. IOC World Bird List Family Muscicapidae


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