Family Old World Flycatchers and Chats (Muscicapidae)
Least Concern
Rufous-tailed Scrub-robin (Cercotrichas galactotes)
Taxonomy
French: Agrobate roux German: Heckensänger Spanish: Alzacola rojizo
Other common names:
Rufous Scrub-robin,
Rufous Bush-robin
Taxonomy:
Sylvia galactotes
Temminck
, 1820,Algeciras, southern Spain
.
Subspecies and Distribution
C. g. galactotes
(Temminck, 1820) – Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin – S & SE Iberian Peninsula#R, N Africa (S to S Algeria), Israel, SW Syria and N & W Jordan; non-breeding Sahel zone of W Africa (E to S Niger) and along upper R Nile and Red Sea coast.
C. g. syriaca
(Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833) – Balkans E to W & S Turkey, W & C Syria and Lebanon; non-breeding NE Africa, mainly between Eritrea and Somalia.
C. g. familiaris
(Ménétries, 1832) – Transcaucasia, SE Turkey, Iraq and NE & E Arabia E to S Kazakhstan, E Iran, E Afghanistan and W Pakistan; non-breeding NE & E Africa.
C. g. minor
(Cabanis, 1851) – African Scrub-robin – #Rlocally from S Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia E to Eritrea, N Ethiopia and extreme NW Somalia.
C. g. hamertoni
(Ogilvie-Grant, 1906) – Somalia (except extreme NW) and SE Ethiopia.
Descriptive notes
15 cm; 20–28 g. Nominate race is sandy-rufous from crown backwards, intensifying to foxy-rufous on tail, latter tipped black and white (prominent during frequent tail... read more
Voice
Song, by male only, a sustained sweet but repetitive unmusical warbling, a variable fluty... read more
Habitat
In Europe mainly artifical habitats such as olive and almond groves, vineyards, citrus and young... read more
Food and feeding
Invertebrates, mainly insects, including beetles, bugs, ants, bees, wasps, flies (including robberflies), dragonflies, grasshoppers,... read more
Breeding
Mid-May to Jun in S Europe and Kazakhstan and May–Aug in Armenia; Apr–Aug in Israel; mainly May–Jun in Pakistan; Apr... read more
Movements
African races minor and hamertoni sedentary. Others migratory, wintering in... read more
Status and conservation
Not globally threatened. Estimated European population 16,333–31,599 pairs in mid-1990s, great majority in Spain, and with additional Turkish in range 5000–50,000... read more
Paler and greyer birds from Transcaspia described as race deserticola; subsumed into familiaris, but possibly merits recognition. Five subspecies recognized.