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White-browed Bush-Robin Tarsiger indicus Scientific name definitions

Nigel Collar
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated January 1, 2005

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Originally Appeared in

HBW Alive

Field Identification

13–15 cm; 16 g. Male nominate race has bluish-slate face and forehead to tail, with long white supercilium, sometimes trace of narrow white malar; dull orange from chin to vent, with whitish mid-belly; bill blackish, legs dark reddish-brown. Female is dull olive-brown above, with buffish-white supercilium and eyering, orange-buff below, whitish mid-belly. Juvenile is dark brown with buff streaking above, buff with brown scaling below, vague buff supercilium; year-old male may lack blue feathering, but capable of breeding. Race yunnanensis has paler throat, yellower underparts, vent greener; formosanus male is like nominate above, but with ochre-tinged olive crown diffusing onto mantle, no white malar, pale olive below, female like nominate but greyer above, light yellowish below.

Systematics History

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Geographically remote race formosanus moderately distinctive, but yunnanensis provides a link (losing the richness of the nominate’s underparts) and vocally all three are very similar (1). Three subspecies recognized.

Subspecies

EBIRD GROUP (POLYTYPIC)

White-browed Bush-Robin (White-browed) Tarsiger indicus indicus/yunnanensis

Tarsiger indicus indicus
T. i. indicus +1
Tarsiger indicus yunnanensis
T. i. yunnanensis
Available illustrations of subspecies in this group
SUBSPECIES

Tarsiger indicus indicus Scientific name definitions

Distribution

C and E Himalayas, from N India (Uttarakhand) E to Arunachal Pradesh and SE Tibet.

SUBSPECIES

Tarsiger indicus yunnanensis Scientific name definitions

Distribution
S China (NE Sichuan S to N Yunnan), N Myanmar and N Vietnam (W Tonkin).
EBIRD GROUP (MONOTYPIC)

White-browed Bush-Robin (Taiwan) Tarsiger indicus formosanus Scientific name definitions

Tarsiger indicus formosanus
T. i. formosanus

Distribution

(2)mountains of Taiwan.

Distribution

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Habitat

Breeds in dense lower bush storey of heavy mixed broadleaf and conifer forest, mainly rhododendron and Abies, mixed subalpine birch, cane jungles at and beyond tree-line, rocky forested ravines, at 3000–4200 m; winters in undergrowth of saplings and bracken in heavy damp forest, 2000–3000 m.

Movement

Altitudinal migrant.

Diet and Foraging

Feeds mainly on ground, on insects.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Song, from small tree, sometimes from ground, a series of identical fast and rapidly following phrases consisting of undulating wispy slurring yet staccato “whi-wi’wich’u-wi’rr” or “shri-de-de-de…de-de-dew” or “wí-u widípwiu wí-u widípwiu”. Calls include sweet rising “heed” or “tuit-tuit” in warning, and distinctive click-like croaking churr, “trrr” or “kr kr kr”, the two often combined; in alarm a low rapid clucking in short phrases that first rise in pitch (to stressed syllable) and at end drop back, “tukukukúkukukukukukukuk”.

Breeding

Apr–Jul in India. Territory c. 3 ha (diameter 150–200 m). Nest a cup placed in hollow in bank. Eggs 3–4, white (usually) with pale pink freckles. No other information.

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife LC Least Concern
Not globally threatened. Locally common in E Himalayas; uncommon in China. Rather scarce to rare in Myanmar and N Indochina.
Distribution of the White-browed Bush-Robin - Range Map
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  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the White-browed Bush-Robin

eBird and Macaulay Library

Recommended Citation

Collar, N. (2020). White-browed Bush-Robin (Tarsiger indicus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.wbbrob1.01
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