Rusty-tailed Flycatcher

The rusty-tailed flycatcher is a small passerine of the flycatcher family, 14 cm long and 11–16 g, with the sexes similar. It is found mainly in the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent and some parts of south-west India, as well as pockets of Central Asia including Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. In a 2016 molecular phylogenetic study Gary Voelker and colleagues found it basal to the other Muscicapini species and proposed a monotypic genus, Ripleyia (Wikipedia, general species account).

The species is partially migratory, with the Central Asian populations migrating to India, as far as the south-west coast along the Arabian Sea, in Karnataka and Kerala, and it is an occasional vagrant elsewhere in India, while other populations, especially those across the lower Himalaya, remain in their native regions year-round and breed there. SoIB 2023 rates it a Moderate conservation priority, a within-India migrant forest bird with a Moderate range of about 55,700 km², a rapid long-term decline of about 68% and a stable current trend (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).