Indian Robin

The Indian robin is a small, upright-tailed chat with a long tail of about 6 to 8cm, usually held upright. Males are mostly black with a white shoulder patch and chestnut undertail coverts, and northern males have brown backs; females are brownish above and greyish below. It lives in dry open scrub, stony ground and grassland, often near homes, and eats mainly insects, plus frogs and lizards when feeding young (Wikipedia, general species account).

It runs along the ground or perches on thorny shrubs and rocks, and males are territorial and may attack their reflections. Breeding usually begins with the first rains, with typically three or four eggs incubated only by the female. All populations are non-migratory across Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Linnaeus described it in 1766 and it is now placed in Copsychus (Wikipedia, general species account).