Red-flanked Bluetail

Red-flanked Bluetail (Tarsiger cyanurus) breeds across the northern Eurasian taiga from Sweden, Finland and Norway to eastern Siberia. All populations migrate to Southeast Asia.

Just like Arctic Warbler and exactly opposite to Willow Warbler and Northern Wheatear, western populations of Arctic Warbler do not migrate to Southeast Asia along the shortest diagonal route. They instead migrate eastwards to eastern Russia and China before moving southwards! An incredibly long journey and one that is repeated when they go back! This also explains why we do not see birds in passage migration through the Indian peninsula.

Red-flanked Bluetail may be another example of a bird species retaining “migration memory”. Despite a significant westward expansion of its breeding range in recent decades, it continues to migrate to Southeast Asia much like Northern Wheatear which continues to migrate to Africa despite a significant eastward expansion.

Migration map

This animated migration map was created from observations uploaded to the citizen science platform eBird up until 2020. Where present, the inset graph depicts the seasonal likelihood of finding this species (i.e. the proportion of eBird checklists) within its range in India alone. We are grateful to the many birdwatchers around the world who have enabled the creation of this animation by sharing their observations on eBird.

The contents of this page are made available under a CC BY license 

More Reads

Amur Falcon

Amur Falcon

Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis) breeds in northern China and eastern Russia (Amur) and is a true passage migrant in India on its way to southern Africa to spend the winter.

Arctic Warbler

Arctic Warbler

Arctic Warbler (Phylloscopus borealis) breeds across the northern Eurasian taiga and migrates to Southeast Asia and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands during winter.

Ashy Drongo

Ashy Drongo

Ashy Drongo (Dicrurus leucophaeus) breeds in the Himalayas and in parts of central India and migrates to lower altitudes and latitudes during winter.