Chinese Rubythroat

About the Chinese Rubythroat

The Chinese rubythroat (Calliope tschebaiewi) is a small passerine bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is closely related to the Siberian rubythroat which however lacks the distinctive white tail-tips and white tail bases. It was also previously considered conspecific with the Himalayan rubythroat, together called the white-tailed rubythroat. It is found along the Himalayan ranges from Pakistan to Myanmar.

The first formal description of the Chinese rubythroat was by the Russian geographer Nikolay Przhevalsky in 1876. He introduced the current binomial name Calliope tschebaiewi. The specific epithet tschebaiewi is in honour of the Cossack Pamfili Tschebaeiv who accompanied Przevalsky on his travels. The Chinese rubythroat was subsequently considered as a subspecies of the Himalayan rubythroat (Calliope pectoralis). The species complex was given the English name "white-tailed rubythroat" and placed in the genus Luscinia. A large molecular phylogenetic study published in 2010 found that the Luscinia was not monophyletic. The genus was therefore split and several species including the white-tailed rubythroat were moved to the reinstated genus Calliope. Another study published... Wikipedia →