Monday 18 March 2019

Stejneger's Stonechat (Saxicola stejnegeri)

OTHER NAMES: N/A
Latin Etymology: Saxicola ("stone dweller") stejnegeri (honouring naturalist Leonhard Hess Stejneger)
Adult male Stejneger's Stonechat (Saxicola stejnegeri) at Florican Grasslands, Cambodia - February 2019

Featured Subspecies: N/A
Weight: 17g  /  Length: 11.5-cm  /  Wingspan: ?
NO UK STATUS IUCN Red List: Not Yet Evaluated 

Stejneger's Stonechat is a recent and sequential taxonomic split in the Stonechat complex - initially the entire bunch was considered to be a single species; the Common Stonechat, but genetic analysis first split the Siberian (and other's away) and then later, Stejneger's from the Siberian.  The Stejneger's represents the range of the complex in East Asia, breeding in the far North of Asia including Russia, Korea and Japan, and Wintering in South East Asia and Southern China such as Cambodia where I saw this bird; a very impressive migration of a minimum of around 2000 miles each way to get to that spot!

Related Species:
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Muscicapidae
Genus: Saxicola
SUBSPECIES: N/A

 - Sighting Locations -
CAMBODIA - Khmer: ពពិចថ្មទ្រូងត្នោត ("Brown stone chestnut")
A Wintering migrant
SINGAPORE / CAMBODIA 2019 TRIP - A male seen at Florican Grassland Reserve

Further Notes: BirdForum Opus, IUCN Red List, RSPB, Wikipedia, Xeno-canto

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