Red-Flanked Bluetail | Tarsiger cyanurus

Voice

The call is a soft, rising hweet followed by a low, hard tak-tak; wintering birds mainly give this hweet-tak-tak. The song, a short, wistful, descending whistled phrase, is not to be expected in the region.

Identification

13–14 cm. Small and compact, with a round head, a large dark eye in a pale eye-ring and an upright stance; the tail is constantly and gently raised and lowered. All plumages share two features: a blue tail and rump, and orange flanks contrasting sharply with the white throat and belly. The adult male is bright blue on head, back and wing coverts, with a pale blue supercilium and shoulder. Females and young males, the birds that turn up as vagrants, are olive-brown above, with a narrow white throat bordered by brown, and only the rump and tail blue; the orange flanks are distinct in them too.

Confusion species

European Robin (Erithacus rubecula) has an orange face and breast and a brown tail. Red-breasted Flycatcher (Ficedula parva) has a black tail with white patches and no orange flanks. Females of Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) and Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros) have an orange-red rather than blue tail. Himalayan Bluetail (Tarsiger rufilatus), from the Himalayas, has not been recorded in the region; the male is darker blue with brighter orange flanks.

Habitat

In winter in shady parks and gardens with dense shrubs and leaf litter, often near water and lawns; also in oases. Feeds low near the ground in shade, dropping from a low perch onto insects on the ground, and becomes strikingly tame once it has settled in a spot.

Range and movements

In the UAE a few records since 2008, several of them birds that wintered for weeks or months in the same park. In Israel and Bahrain at least one record each. To be expected elsewhere in the region, including Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia, but not confirmed. Beyond the region it breeds from Finland across the Siberian taiga to Kamchatka and Japan, and winters in southern China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia; in western Europe an annual autumn vagrant.

How and when to look

In the Gulf a bluetail is mostly found by chance by those searching the shady parts of city parks and gardens in winter. Listen for the hweet-tak-tak and look for a small bird with a blue tail sitting low in shade. Report any sighting to the national rarities committee.

Conservation status

Not globally threatened; its range is expanding westwards in Finland, which explains the increase in vagrants in Europe and possibly also in the Middle East. As a vagrant it raises no conservation issue in the region.

Scientific name

Tarsiger cyanurus | (Pallas, 1773)

Pallas described the species in 1773 as Motacilla Cyanurus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Tarsiger was introduced in 1845 by Hodgson. Tarsiger combines Ancient Greek tarsos 'flat of the foot' with Latin gerere 'to carry'. cyanurus is Greek, from kuanos 'dark blue' and -ouros '-tailed', after the blue tail. The specimen the first description was based on came from the Yenisei.