Rediscovery of an enigmatic Chinese passerine, the Blackthroat Calliope obscura: plumage, vocalizations, distribution, habitat choice, nesting and conservation

Song, Gang; Alström, Per; Zhang, Yongwen; Gao, Xuebin; Gong, Hui‐Sheng; Holt, Paul; Qing, Quan; Yin, Zhong‐Ping; Lei, Fumin

doi:10.1007/s10336-013-1009-5

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Many species of robins, redstarts, shortwings and flycatchers that breed at high elevations in the Eastern Himalaya and mountain ranges of south-central China (e.g. Qinling and Sichuan mountains) also descend to the riparian wetlands of northern Myanmar, Thailand and north-east India in winter (see Rasmussen and Anderton 2005, Tordoff et al 2007, Song et al 2013), including two poorly known chats (i.e. Firethroat Luscinia pectardens and Black-throated Blue Robin L. obscura ).…”

Section: Use Of Wintering Habitats By Migratory Songbirdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By contrast, there is limited research on the migration patterns, connectivity and strategies of many songbirds, or their status in the wintering ranges (e.g. Black-throated Blue Robin Luscinia obscura as highlighted in Song et al 2013). For instance, Wang et al (2006b) noted only 10 publications on songbird migration in China between 1924 and 1989, and none on stop-over ecology of songbird migrants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Migratory songbirds in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway: a review from a conservation perspective

Yong

Liu

Low³

et al. 2015

Bird Conservation International

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The East Asian-Australasian Flyway supports the greatest diversity and populations of migratory birds globally, as well as the highest number of threatened migratory species of any flyway, including passerines (15 species). However it is also one of the most poorly understood migration systems, and little is known about the populations and ecology of the passerine migrants that breed, stop over and winter in the habitats along this flyway. We provide the first flyway-wide review of diversity, ecology, and conservation issues relating to 170 species of long-distance and over 80 short-distance migrants from 32 families. Recent studies of songbird migration movements and ecology is limited, and is skewed towards East Asia, particularly Mainland China, Taiwan, Russia, Japan and South Korea. Strong evidence of declines exists for some species, e.g. Yellow-breasted Bunting Emberiza aureola , but tends to be fragmentary, localised or anecdotal for many others. More species have small breeding ranges (< 250,000 km 2 ) and/or are dependent on tropical forests as wintering habitat than those in any other Eurasian migratory system, and are thus more vulnerable to habitat loss and degradation throughout their ranges. Poorly regulated hunting for food and the pet trade, invasive species and collisions with man-made structures further threaten migratory songbirds at a number of stop-over or wintering sites, while climate change and habitat loss may be of increasing concern in the breeding ranges. A key conservation priority is to carry out intensive field surveys across the region while simultaneously tapping into citizen science datasets, to identify important stop-over and wintering sites, particularly for poorly-known or globally threatened species across South-East Asia and southern China for targeted conservation actions. Additionally, the advent of miniaturised tracking technology, molecular and isotopic techniques can provide novel insights into migration connectivity, paths and ecology for species in this migration system, complementing data from banding exercises and observation-based surveys, and could prove useful in informing conservation priorities. However, until most states along the East Asian-Australasian flyway ratify the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and other cross-boundary treaties, the relative lack of crossboundary cooperation, coordination and information sharing in the region will continue to present a stumbling block for effective conservation of migratory passerines.

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Section: Use Of Wintering Habitats By Migratory Songbirdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migratory songbirds in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway: a review from a conservation perspective

Yong

Liu

Low³

et al. 2015

Bird Conservation International

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“…The genus Calliope consists of four members, Siberian rubythroat Calliope calliope and its sister species white‐tailed rubythroat C. pectoralis , and the sister species firethroat C. pectardens and blackthroat C. obscura (Alström et al ). The latter two species are monotypic and have restricted ranges in the mountains in central China (Collar , Song et al , Clement and Rose ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Species delimitation of the white‐tailed rubythroat Calliope pectoralis complex (Aves, Muscicapidae) using an integrative taxonomic approach

Liu

Chen

Huang

et al. 2016

Journal of Avian Biology

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Our knowledge of the systematics and taxonomy of Asian birds has improved much in the last two decades, and the number of recognised species has increased significantly as a result of in‐depth studies using an integrative taxonomic approach. The Sino‐Himalayan mountains harbor a high level of passerine diversity. Several allopatric or parapatric taxa that are currently treated as subspecies of polytypic species within that region are likely to deserve full species status, and thus their taxonomic status needs to be revisited. Based on analyses of multilocus data, vocalizations and morphology, we propose that the white‐tailed rubythroat Calliope pectoralis should be treated as two species, the Himalayan rubythroat C. pectoralis sensu stricto in the Tian Shan and Himalayan mountains, and the Chinese rubythroat C. tschebaiewi in the mountains of southwestern and north‐central China. According to our dating analyses based on mitochondrial loci, these two species diverged approximately 2.2 million yr ago. We further found that C. tschebaiewi was paraphyletic to C. pectoralis sensu stricto in nuclear data, which demonstrates a state of mitonuclear discordance that warrants further work. Our results suggest that geographic changes and glacial cycles in the Pleistocene may have caused allopatric divergence in the C. pectoralis complex. Our study stresses the importance of applying an integrative taxonomy approach to fully unravel the true avian diversity in the Sino‐Himalayan Mountains.

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“…Extensive surveys of suitable habitats in Sichuan, adjacent southern Gansu (especially) and Shaanxi and southeastern Tibet during May and June would probably reveal the presence of L. ruficeps in at least a few more places. Another rare robin, the Blackthroat Calliope obscura, had only been seen a handful of times since it was first described in the 1890s, until a breeding population was discovered in the Qinling mountains in 2011 (Song et al 2014) and another recently discovered potential breeding area in southern Gansu province (Alstr€ om et al 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another rare robin, the Blackthroat Calliope obscura , had only been seen a handful of times since it was first described in the 1890s, until a breeding population was discovered in the Qinling mountains in 2011 (Song et al . ) and another recently discovered potential breeding area in southern Gansu province (Alström et al . ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic relationships, song and distribution of the endangered Rufous‐headed Robin Larvivora ruficeps

Zhao

Alström

et al. 2016

Ibis

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The Rufous‐headed Robin Larvivora ruficeps is one of the world's rarest and least known birds. We summarize the known records since it was first described in 1905 from Shaanxi Province, central China. All subsequent Chinese records are from seven adjacent localities in nearby Sichuan Province. We studied its phylogenetic position for the first time using mitochondrial and nuclear markers for all species of Larvivora and a broad selection of other species in the family Muscicapidae. Our results confirmed that L. ruficeps is appropriately placed in the genus Larvivora, and suggested that it is sister to the Rufous‐tailed Robin Larvivora sibilans, with these two forming a sister clade to a clade comprising both the Japanese Robin Larvivora akahige and Ryukyu Robin Larvivora komadori. Siberian Blue Robin Larvivora cyane and Indian Blue Robin Larvivora brunnea form the sister clade to the other Larvivora species. In contrast, song analyses indicated that the song of L. ruficeps is most similar to that of L. komadori, whereas the song of L. sibilans is relatively more similar to that of L. akahige, and songs of L. cyane and L. brunnea closely resemble each other. We used ecological niche modelling to estimate the suitable habitats of L. ruficeps based on the records from breeding grounds, suggesting that north and central Sichuan, south Gansu, south Shaanxi and south‐east Tibet are likely to contain the most suitable habitats for this species.

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Rediscovery of an enigmatic Chinese passerine, the Blackthroat Calliope obscura: plumage, vocalizations, distribution, habitat choice, nesting and conservation

Cited by 6 publications

References 5 publications

Migratory songbirds in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway: a review from a conservation perspective

Migratory songbirds in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway: a review from a conservation perspective

Species delimitation of the white‐tailed rubythroat Calliope pectoralis complex (Aves, Muscicapidae) using an integrative taxonomic approach

Phylogenetic relationships, song and distribution of the endangered Rufous‐headed Robin Larvivora ruficeps

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