Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin
A species of Erythropygia Scientific name : Cercotrichas galactotes Genus : Erythropygia
Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin, A species of Erythropygia
Botanical name: Cercotrichas galactotes
Genus: Erythropygia
Content
Description General Info
Description
Adult male and female rufous-tailed scrub robin look alike and measure about 6 inches (150 mm) long with relatively long legs and a large rounded tail. The upper parts are a rich brownish chestnut, with the rump and uppertail coverts rather more rufous. There is a distinct curved, creamy-white broad streak from the nostrils to behind the eye and a dark brown line through the eye. The under-eye area is whitish and the ear coverts pale brown. The eye and the beak are both brown but the lower mandible of the beak has a greyish base. The underparts are buffish white, with the chin, central belly and undertail coverts paler than the other parts. The feathers of the wing are dark brown, fringed on the leading edge with buff and on the trailing edge with pale chestnut-brown and with the secondaries tipped with white. The central pair of feathers on the tail are bright rufous-chestnut with narrow black tips and the rest a similar colour with white tips and adjacent broad black bands. The legs and feet are pale brown. Juveniles are similar in appearance but generally a paler sandy-brown colour. The plumage is moulted in the autumn and prior to this, the white tips of the tail feathers may have become reduced in size or worn off. The song is a somewhat lark-like but often disjointed series of notes, sometimes clear and loud but at other times soft, and is sung from an elevated position near the top of a tree, on a pole or on a wire. It has been described as having a sad tone. 
Size
15 cm
Life Expectancy
7 years
Feeding Habits
Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin primarily consumes invertebrates such as beetles, ants, wasps, flies, and earthworms, complemented with fruits, berries, and seeds. Foraging mainly on the ground, rufous-tailed Scrub Robin flips leaves and probes soil while also performing aerial sallies to catch insects. Dietary adaptations include eating a variety of insects and occasionally plant matter, meeting its nutritional needs across diverse environments.
Habitat
The rufous-tailed Scrub Robin inhabits a variety of landscapes across its range, favoring bushy areas with a mix of sparse trees and shrubbery. It is typically found in human-altered environments such as groves, orchards, and plantations of olive, almond, vine, and citrus, as well as parks. Furthermore, it frequents natural bushlands, riverside vegetation, palm groves, and semi-desert terrains with a range of flora including tamarisk, acacia, and other drought-resistant plants. The species also adapts to grassy woodlands, dry riverbeds, savannas, and semi-shaded gardens, often seen around human settlements.
Dite type
Insectivorous
General Info
Behavior
The rufous-tailed scrub robin is found flitting among dense cover but also in more open positions on trees, the tops of bushes and on posts. It is frequently seen on the ground hopping about and flaring and bobbing its tail up and down. When perched it also displays its tail in this way and also sometimes droops its wings before giving them a little flick forward. It feeds mainly on the ground on insects such as beetles, grasshoppers and the larvae of butterflies and moths, and on earthworms, turning over the leaf litter to find its prey. The male rufous-tailed scrub robin has an unusual display flight involving a downward swoop with uplifted wings and may sing while displaying. The nest is built a few feet off the ground in a bush, a hedge of prickly pear, on a tree stump or other concealed place. It is usually well-hidden and is untidily built of grasses, stems, roots and other fibres. The inside is neatly cup-shaped and is lined with fine roots, hairs and often a piece of snakeskin. A clutch of four to five (occasionally fewer) eggs is laid. The eggs average about 22 by 16 millimetres (0.87 in × 0.63 in) and have a pale greenish or greyish-white background colour liberally sprinkled with greyish-brown spots.
Distribution Area
The rufous-tailed scrub robin is a partial migrant. Its breeding range extends from Portugal, southern Spain and the Balkan Peninsula, through the Middle East to Iraq, Kazakhstan and Pakistan. In Africa it breeds from Morocco to Egypt and south of the Sahara as far east as Somalia. It is an uncommon vagrant to northern Europe. It winters in North Africa and eastwards to India. Its habitat is dry scrubby open country with patches of dense bushes in lowlands or foothills; where it is numerous, it may also be found in parks, vineyards and large gardens. The rufous-tailed scrub robin has an extensive range, estimated at 4.3 million square kilometres (1.66 million square miles), and a large population, including an estimated 96 to 288 thousand individuals in Europe. As the European range is somewhere between a quarter and half of the global range, the global population may range from 196 thousand to 1.15 million individuals. The population size appeared to be stable in 2013 and the bird was not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criteria of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (i.e., declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations), and was then evaluated as being of "Least Concern".
Scientific Classification
Phylum
Chordates Class
Birds Order
Perching birds Family
Old world flycatchers Genus
Erythropygia Species
Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin 
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