Description:

Medium sized stocky redstart, wags tail up and down and opens it, scissor-like. Male slaty-blue, with rufous-chestnut tail. Female and first-year male have black-and-white tail and white spotting on grey underparts. Juvenile resembles female, but has buff spotting on browner upperparts, and black scaling on buffish underparts.

Distribution:

Common summer visitor and resident in lower valleys of Ghizer, Gilgit and Diamer districts. Found in margins and boulders of clear rocky fast-flowing streams and rivers, inside and outside forest, up to 3000m. Wintering down to adjacent lowlands.

Behavior:

Makes short flycatching sallies from rocks or overhanging branches, snatches aquatic prey from surface of water, hunts on foot along water's edge and occasionally wades in shallows in search of water-borne prey. Feeds on insects, notably caddis flies and their larvae, mayflies and midges; occasionally berries and seeds.

Photo Gallery:

Range & Occurrence:

Resident Species

Summer Breeder

Winter Visitor

Passage Migrant

Distribution Map of Plumbeous Redstart in Gilgit-Baltistan (Status: )

Seasonal Occurrence of Plumbeous Redstart

Resources:

Birds of Pakistan: Helm Field Guides (R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
The Birds of Pakistan (T. J. Roberts)
Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (C. Inskipp, R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide (P. Rasmussen & J. Anderton)
Birds of India: Collins Field Guide (N. Arlott)
Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan (S. Ali & S. D. Ripley)
Handbook of the Birds of the World (https://www.hbw.com)
The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World, 6th Edition
iNaturalist BoGB (inaturalist.org/projects/birds-of-gilgit-baltistan)
Birds of Gilgit-Baltistan (http://fb.me/birdsgb)

*Gallery images on this page are shared from flickr.com, and are copyrighted to their respective creators or owners.