Himalayan bluetail (Male) Tarsiger rufilatus |
Himalayan
bluetail: Tarsiger
rufilatus
Gender:
Male
IUCN
Status: Not Evaluated (NE)
Sighted
at: 3200
m ASL approx., between Chopta and Tungnath.
On the way down in my
quest for high altitude species of birds from the heights of
Chandrashila-Tungnath trek, a further kilometre down the twisting trail towards
Chopta, where thickets of Rhododendron begin at the uncertain fringes of the
retreating snow-line, I heard this cheep-cheep
through my own panting. Dinesh Negi, the mountain lad guiding me through the
area, had evidently heard it before I did for he was off in a flash towards the
nearest thicket. His frantic hand-waving signalling me to hurry towards meant
he had spotted a bird. I heaved myself for a sprint down the track. It was
worth the effort. There he was, a beautiful male Himalayan bluetail – sitting among
the understory of a rhodenderon bush.
The upperparts and breast sides
were glistening blue. The tail was also blue. The flanks were tufts of flaming
orange. The throat and chest were white. He stood upright and was about 12
centimetres in size.
This bird, in summers, is
usually found upwards of 3000m ASL upto 4500m or so. In winters, the bird comes
down to about 1500-2500m.
I couldn’t spot the female. But
if I did, it might have sported olive colour instead of the blue of the male,
rest being similar to male.
Insectivorous in nature...if
you look closely, this gent has a bug clamped in his beak.
Taxonomy:
Himalayan bluetail has been
accorded status of a separate species recently. Earlier, it was clubbed with T.cyanurus as a subspecies. Whereas T.cyranus is a long-distance migrant,
Himalayan bluetail is not. Further, T.cyranus
lacks the sheen in blue which Himalayan bluetail has and a less distinct white
supercilium.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Muscicapidae
Genus: Tarsiger
Species: rufilatus
The IUCN status of this species
has not been evaluated yet.
Photographed at Tungnath
mountainside at an altitude of about 3200m ASL approx., Uttarakhand, India, on
1st May, 2015, using a Nikon D7200 camera and Tamron 150-600 mm
lens.
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