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Black Redstart
Latin Name:
Phoenicurus ochruros
Category:
Size:
15cm
Description:
Male: black above (marked with grey in winter); grey crown and lower back; rufous rump and sides of tail; black throat and breast; rufous below. Female: dull brown above; tail as in male; dull tawny-brown below. The eastern race rufiventris has a black crown, and is the common wintering bird of India. Mostly solitary in winter, when common all over India; easy bird to observe, in winter and in its open high-altitude summer country; perches on overhead wires, poles, rocks and stumps; characteristic shivering of tail and jerky body movements; makes short dashes to ground, soon returning to perch with catch; rather confiding insummer, breeding in houses, under roofs and in wall crevices.
Habitat:
open country, cultivation.
Food:
insects, mostly taken on ground.
Distribution:
breeds in the Himalaya, 2,400–5,200m; winters over much of subcontinent.
![](https://birds.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/Black%20Redstart%20%28Female%29_0.jpg)
![Shiva](https://birds.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/Black%20Redstart%20%28male%29.jpg)
![Sunit](https://birds.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/Black%20Redstart%20female.jpg)
![](https://birds.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/Black%20Redstart.jpg)
Call:
Call Description:
squeaking tictititic… call, often beginning with faint tsip… note; trilling song of breeding male.
IUCN:
At IITK: