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 lovely warbling and occasional mimicry”.
Nonetheless, eBird errs stating that “youthful male could have a touch of purple, whereas feminine lacks purple” – although most birders certainly assume that is true, females typically have a reddish throat (like a carelessly utilized lipstick), as described within the relatively detailed e-book “Ageing & Sexing of Migratory East Asian Passerines”, which surprisingly solely reaches #4,310,956 within the Amazon Rating of Greatest Promoting Books, regardless of being a cut price at USD 107 (cash properly spent, if you happen to ask me).
A number of pictures of the feminine
Certainly, one other supply additionally states that neither dimension nor shade of the purple throat patch or the bordering sub-malar stripes are dependable area 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 massive numbers (despite the fact that this might be the shortest manner). Somewhat, throughout autumn migration, it first flies to east Siberia, then turns south throughout japanese China, and eventually turns west (supply: Birds of Two Worlds: The Ecology and Evolution of Migration).
It additionally appears that completely different populations of rubythroats use completely 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 (supply). There’s additionally one other research additionally wanting on the migration routes of Siberian Rubythroats primarily based on light-level-based geolocation.
Different enjoyable issues that researchers have carried out with Siberian Rubythroats embrace 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 purple, although I’m not fairly positive if that is notably related data.
Equally, I’m not fairly positive what to make of the data that the wing size of rubythroats trapped in Hong Kong grew to become shorter between 1985 and 2020 (supply) – my guess is that both international warming or Donald Trump needs to be accountable.
The music of the Siberian Rubythroat is relatively fascinating and sometimes 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 various music items, a stereotypical set of various notes and syllables which might be at all times introduced collectively and in a strictly mounted order.”
The foraging conduct of the rubythroat is described as a “complicated exploration of dense vegetation thickets” (supply), 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 typically are very completely satisfied to see Siberian Rubythroats, there may be the chance of them spreading ailments. A research 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.
