Striking Silhouettes

Photo Feature

Guldenstadts Redstart
Güldenstädt’s Redstart Phoenicurus erythrogastrus: The Güldenstädt’s Redstart is a bird of the mountains. It can survive nowhere else. Widely spread across the mountain ranges of Caucasus, Karakoram, Pamir, Himalaya, Tian Shan and Altai in central and eastern Asia, this is the largest of all the redstarts. An alpine avian, the Güldenstädt’s Redstart is an altitudinal migrant. In winter, it moves down to lower altitudes of between 1,500 and 4,800 m. and, interestingly, breeds at altitudes above the upper tree-line in dwarf-scrub zones. As with most other specialised survivors, a warming world is likely to bring in competitors that could conceivably edge this redstart into oblivion. Status: Least Concern Photo: Rahul Rao

striking silhouettes