The Siberian Rubythroat passes by Shanghai on its autumn migration, primarily in October and November. Its Latin identify, Calliope calliope, is derived from Calliope, the chief of the Greek muses. Apparently, she was each the wisest and probably the most assertive of the muses. She additionally will need to have had one thing of a imply streak – after defeating the daughters of the king of Thessaly in a singing contest, she punished them by turning them into magpies.
eBird appears to be a fan of the species, calling it a perky, long-legged songbird” with a “variable melodic music consist[ing] of gorgeous warbling and occasional mimicry”.
Nonetheless, eBird errs stating that “youthful male could have a touch of crimson, whereas feminine lacks crimson” – although most birders certainly suppose that is true, females typically have a reddish throat (like a carelessly utilized lipstick), as described within the somewhat detailed ebook “Ageing & Sexing of Migratory East Asian Passerines”, which surprisingly solely reaches #4,310,956 within the Amazon Rating of Finest Promoting Books, regardless of being a cut price at USD 107 (cash properly spent, for those who ask me).
A couple of pictures of the feminine
Certainly, another source additionally states that neither measurement nor colour of the crimson throat patch or the bordering sub-malar stripes are dependable discipline marks for sexing Siberian Rubythroats.
The Siberian Rubythroat appears to considerably lack a correct inbuilt GPS system – whereas it breeds as far west because the Ural Mountains and winters as far est as Central India, it doesn’t migrate by central Asia in giant numbers (despite the fact that this might be the shortest manner). Quite, throughout autumn migration, it first flies to east Siberia, then turns south throughout jap China, and eventually turns west (supply: Birds of Two Worlds: The Ecology and Evolution of Migration).
It additionally appears that totally different populations of rubythroats use totally different and particular routes, a phenomenon that’s apparently referred to as “migratory connectivity” and that’s comparatively unusual amongst long-distance migrants. Birds breeding in mainland East Russia migrate by mainland China and spend the winter in South-East Asia, whereas birds ringed in Japan and easternmost Russia had been primarily discovered wintering in Taiwan and the Philippines (source). There may be additionally another study additionally trying on the migration routes of Siberian Rubythroats primarily based on light-level-based geolocation.
Different enjoyable issues that researchers have done with Siberian Rubythroats embody investigating their response to gentle of various wavelengths. They discovered that the seen gentle sensitivity of Siberian Rubythroat was the best for the 478 nm turquoise and decreased in direction of the 622 nm crimson, although I’m not fairly positive if that is notably related info.
Equally, I’m not fairly positive what to make of the data that the wing size of rubythroats trapped in Hong Kong turned shorter between 1985 and 2020 (source) – my guess is that both world warming or Donald Trump must be accountable.
The music of the Siberian Rubythroat is somewhat attention-grabbing and infrequently sounds nearly jazzy to me (not normally a praise coming from me, however on this context, it’s). A paper on this additionally describes the music of the species as extraordinarily complicated and variable. The paper offers much more element on its music: “This species sings predominantly discontinuously, however the period of particular person songs varies considerably. Every particular person music consists of quite a lot of music items, a stereotypical set of various notes and syllables which can be all the time offered collectively and in a strictly mounted order.”
The foraging conduct of the rubythroat is described as a “complicated exploration of dense vegetation thickets” (source), notably in comparison with a few of its closest family members such because the Rufous-tailed Robin, the Siberian Blue Robin, and the Bluethroat.
Whereas birders usually are very glad to see Siberian Rubythroats, there is also the chance of them spreading illnesses. A study discovered that Siberian Rubythroats breeding in Siberia and Russia and wintering in Southeast Asia carry each tick-borne encephalitis virus and a few borrelia species. So higher not let a rubythroat chew you.
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