Himalayan Rubythroat

The Himalayan rubythroat is a passerine of the family Muscicapidae found along the Tien Shan and Himalayan ranges from Afghanistan to Myanmar. Three subspecies are recognised across its wide range, and ballioni, in Afghanistan and the Tien Shan, has the male paler than the nominate of the western Himalaya. The male is slaty brown above with a white forehead and eyebrow, brownish wings and a blackish tail with white base and tips, each black breast feather narrowly fringed with grey. It is closely related to the Siberian rubythroat, which lacks the distinctive white tail tips and bases, and it was previously considered conspecific with the Chinese rubythroat, together called the white-tailed rubythroat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is usually seen singly or in pairs in the breeding season, feeding mainly on small insects. The male sings through the day from an exposed perch, a series of squeaky notes with a great deal of variation, and the alarm call is a sharp yapping skyap. The breeding season is in summer; four to six eggs are laid, incubated mostly by the female, though both parents feed the nestlings (Wikipedia, general species account).