today we've got the elusive white-throated bushchat, also known as the common stonechat. it's got a small wintering range and a small breeding range, along the Nepal-India border and in western Mongolia respectively. more specifically, its wintering range is within the lowland grass-dominated Terai region and the Duars, a riverine floodplain in southern Bhutan and northeast India. its breeding range is high-altitude, covered in meadows and scrub. in each of its ranges, it dwells in shrubland and grasslands.
it tends to be most often spotted when it elects to survey its surroundings from atop a rock or shrub. human-made structures are often found to be just as suitable vantage points as their natural counterparts, and these critters sometimes inhabit farms, such as sugarcane fields. females are a mottled orange-brown with a white wingbar, while males' plumage is a striking white and dark grey-brown with an orange chest patch during the breeding season. for the rest of the year, males and females look much more alike, though males tend darker and more saturated.
21 June 2026
