Chestnut-bellied rock thrush

Chestnut-bellied rock thrush
Male at Dhanaulti, India.
Female at Kausani, India
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Muscicapidae
Genus:	Monticola
Species:	M. rufiventris
Binomial name
Monticola rufiventris (Jardine & Selby, 1833)
Synonyms
Petrophila erythrogastra Petrocincla rufiventris (protonym)

The chestnut-bellied rock thrush (Monticola rufiventris) is a species of passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It is found in the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent, eastwards towards parts of Southeast Asia. Its range includes northern Pakistan eastwards to northern India, Bhutan, southern China, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitat is temperate forests.

Taxonomy

The chestnut-bellied rock thrush was formally described in 1832 by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Vigors under the binomial name Turdus erythogaster. ^[2] Unfortunaely the identical name had been used for a different species by the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert in 1783. ^{[3] [4]} The chestnut-bellied rock thrush was described again in 1833 by the English naturalists William Jardine and Prideaux John Selby under the binomial name Petrocincla rufiventris. ^[5] They specified the locality as the "Himalayan region" but this was restricted to Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, India, by Sidney Dillon Ripley in 1961. ^{[6] [7]} The specific epithet rufiventris is Modern Latin meaning "red-bellied" from Latin rufus meaning "ruddy" or "rufous" and venter, ventris meaning "belly". ^[8] The chestnut-bellied rock thrush is now one of the 15 species placed in the genus Monticola that was introduced in 1822 by the German naturalist Friedrich Boie. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. ^[9]

Description

The chestnut-bellied rock thrush is 21–23 cm (8.3–9.1 in) in overall length and weighs 48–61 g (1.7–2.2 oz). The male has a blue-grey crown and upperparts with darker lores and throat. The undersides are deep chestnut. The female has dull grey-brown upperparts and scalloped slate-grey with buffy-white underparts. The eyering and the post-auricular patch are whitish-buff. ^[10]

References

1. BirdLife International (2016). "Monticola rufiventris". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T22708281A94155365. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22708281A94155365.en . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
2. Vigors, Nicholas Aylward (1831). "Mr. Vigors exhibited the sixth and last portion of the species comprising the 'Century of Birds from the Himalayan Mountains'". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (published 1832): 170-171 [171].
3. Boddaert, Pieter (1783). Table des planches enluminéez d'histoire naturelle de M. D'Aubenton : avec les denominations de M.M. de Buffon, Brisson, Edwards, Linnaeus et Latham, precedé d'une notice des principaux ouvrages zoologiques enluminés (in French). Utrecht. p. 22 Number 358.
4. Oberholser, Harry C. (1921). "Mutanda Ornithologica". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 34: 49–50.
5. Jardine, William; Selby, Prideaux John (1826–1835). Illustrations of Ornithology. Vol. 3. Edinburgh: W.H. Lizars (published 1833). Plate 129, text.
6. Ripley, Sidney Dillon (1961). A Synopsis of the Birds of India and Pakistan (1st ed.). Bombay Natural History Society. p. 523.
7. Mayr, Ernst; Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, eds. (1964). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 10. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 138.
8. Jobling, James A. "rufiventris". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
9. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (February 2025). "Chats, Old World flycatchers". IOC World Bird List Version 15.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
10. Collar, N.J. (2005). "Turdidae (Thrushes)" . In del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Christie, D.A. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 10: Cuckoo-shrikes to Thrushes. Barcelona, Spain: Lynx Edicions. pp. 514-807 [723]. ISBN   978-84-87334-72-6.