Blue Rock-Thrush
Monticola solitarius
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumChordata (Chordates)
- ClassAves (Birds)
- OrderPasseriformes (Perching Birds)
- FamilyMuscicapidae (Old World Flycatchers, Robins, and Chats)
- GenusMonticola (Rock-Thrushes)
- SpeciesMonticola solitarius (Blue Rock-Thrush)
About the Blue Rock-Thrush
The blue rock thrush (Monticola solitarius) is a species of chat. This thrush-like Old World flycatcher was formerly placed in the family Turdidae. It breeds in southern Europe, northwest Africa, and from Central Asia to northern China and Malaysia. The blue rock thrush is the official national bird of Malta.
The blue rock thrush was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Turdus solitarius. The type locality is Italy. The scientific name is from Latin. Monticola is from mons, montis "mountain", and colere, "to dwell", and the specific epithet solitarius means "solitary".
The rock thrush genus Monticola was formerly placed in the family Turdidae but molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that the species in the genus are more closely related to members of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.
There are five recognised subspecies: M. s. solitarius (Linnaeus, 1758) – northwest Africa, south Europe, north Turkey to Georgia and Azerbaijan. M. s. longirostris (Blyth, 1847) – Greece and west and south Turkey through the Middle East to the northwest Himalayas to northeast Africa and India
M. s. pandoo... Wikipedia →
Closest Relatives at Taman Negara National Park
Oriental Magpie-Robin
Copsychus saularis
White-rumped Shama
Copsychus malabaricus
White-crowned Forktail
Enicurus leschenaulti
Rufous-chested Flycatcher
Ficedula dumetoria
Asian Brown Flycatcher
Muscicapa latirostris
Malaysian Blue-Flycatcher
Cyornis turcosus
Tickell's Blue Flycatcher
Cyornis tickelliae
Chestnut-naped Forktail
Enicurus ruficapillus
Korean Flycatcher
Ficedula zanthopygia
Grey-chested Jungle Flycatcher
Rhinomyias umbratilis
Verditer Flycatcher
Eumyias thalassinus
Pale Blue-Flycatcher
Cyornis unicolor
Global Distribution
Where this species is recorded worldwide. Restricted to human observations from 2019 onwards — the same kind of record and the same period the probabilities on this page are built from, so collar-tracking studies, camera-trap arrays and museum specimens are excluded. Around Santa Rosa that removes 5,924 GPS fixes from a handful of tagged jaguars.
where this species is recorded (GBIF density — it tracks where observers go, not how likely a sighting is) · parks where it occurs — tap a pin for the sighting probability there