Appearance:

Unmistakable. Grey, cliff-climbing bird with long, thin and curved bill. Wings with colourful pattern in carmine red, black and white spots. Habitually flicks wings when foraging (see videolink below), but still hard to spot when not flying. Flight jerky and butterfly-like, and also recalls Hoopoe. Wings appear dark from below, except for white pearls on primaries. Male with blackish throat in breeding season.

Sound:

Alarm call a thin trilling "vuiirrrrrrr". Flight call one or several soft whistles, often with (very) short trill as attack or tail. Song variable in length, but main characteristic a sequence of 4-6 long, ascending whistles with timbre recalling whistling kettle. More complex and varied phrases are mixed with the long whistles. Both male and female sings.

Song:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

CC-sound:Philippe Legay, Licence,Link.

CC-photo:gilgit2, Licence,Link.

Appearance:

Like a large Willow Warbler, with distinct dark eye-stripe. Supercilium marked, but narrow. Starts at base of bill, continuing far behind eye. Wing-bar distinct on greater coverts, and sometimes on median coverts too. Primary projection long. Bill long and relatively heavy with orange base. Flanks often slightly grey, and throat sometimes with faint streaking. Appearance robust, but elegant. Moves faster and with more confidence than congeners.

Sound:

Call and song diagnostic. Song a rattling series of 20-30 single syllables. Repeated as a monotonous phrase in stable pitch, lasting 2-4 seconds. Starts more softly with volume rising throughout each phrase. Contact call equally unique. A hard and short "tsrrt", recalling contact call of Dipper. Often given as introductory part of song.

Song (two variants) and calls:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

CC-sound:Karri Kuitunen, Licence,Link.