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

Paler and greyer birds from Transcaspia described as race deserticola; subsumed into familiaris, but possibly merits recognition. Five subspecies recognized.

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.

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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

Bibliography

Public comments

Scientific classification

Class: Aves

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Muscicapidae

— Show family text —

In past, traditionally treated as an outsize family that also included expanded versions of Sylviidae, Timaliidae and Turdidae; these three were subsequently split off as three separate families, but still in much expanded form as compared to their current treatment. Since publication of HBW, limits of all these families have been dramatically rewritten due to a barrage of occasionally contradictory molecular data. Within present family problems remain, particularly due to incomplete taxon sampling, but near-complete screening to species level has now been attempted for at least a handful of genera (notably Oenanthe and Saxicola), and large elements of consensus have emerged, among them the recognition of four principal lineages, here treated as subfamilies. Most notable development involves transfer of many genera from Turdidae to present family, including Alethe, Cichladusa, Heteroxenicus, Brachypteryx, Heinrichia, Myophonus, Monticola, Thamnolaea, Myrmecocichla, Pogonocichla, Swynnertonia, Stiphrornis, Sheppardia, Cossypha, Xenocopsychus, Irania, Luscinia, Erithacus, Tarsiger, Cercotrichas, Copsychus, Phoenicurus, Saxicola and Oenanthe. Genetic sampling has also revealed extensive paraphyly, with the result that many species have switched genera. Some genera have disappeared completely into synonymy (e.g. Erythropygia), and others have shrunk to just one or two species (e.g. Luscinia), while a few have become substantially larger (e.g. Cercotrichas, Oenanthe).