Blue Rock Thrush
Photo © Srivatsan Ramkumar
Photo © Srivatsan Ramkumar — CC BY 4.0 — Source: iNaturalist photo #630998641The blue rock thrush (Monticola solitarius) is a species of chat. This thrush-like Old World flycatcher was formerly placed in the family Turdidae. It breeds in southern Europe, northwest Africa, and from Central Asia to northern China and Malaysia. The blue rock thrush is the official national bird of Malta. == Taxonomy == The blue rock thrush was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Turdus solitarius. The type locality is Italy. The scientific name is from Latin. Monticola is from mons, montis "mountain", and colere, "to dwell", and the specific epithet solitarius means "solitary". The rock thrush genus Monticola was formerly placed in the family Turdidae but molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that the species in the genus are more closely related to members of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. There are five recognised subspecies: M. s. solitarius (Linnaeus, 1758) – northwest Africa, south Europe, north Turkey to Georgia and Azerbaijan. M. s. longirostris (Blyth, 1847) – Greece and west and south Turkey through the Middle East to the northwest Himalayas to northeast Africa and India M. s. pandoo (Sykes, 1832) – central Himalayas to east China…
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+159 birds+7 mammals
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+180 birds+4 mammals
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+155 birds+12 mammals
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+447 birds+47 mammals
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+179 birds+3 mammals
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+226 birds+7 mammals
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+321 birds+23 mammals
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+270 birds+20 mammals
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+285 birds+17 mammals
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Badgadi Kalan, India
+271 birds+17 mammals
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+422 birds+26 mammals
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+218 birds+5 mammals
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+131 birds+13 mammals
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+326 birds+14 mammals
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Mlappara, India
+232 birds+4 mammals
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Vattavada, India
+258 birds+14 mammals
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Hirehalli, India
+302 birds+19 mammals
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Nalkeri Forest, India
+323 birds+23 mammals
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Ethiopia
+438 birds+7 mammals
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Ethiopia
+397 birds+20 mammals
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+473 birds+23 mammals
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Debark, Ethiopia
+120 birds+9 mammals
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Kampong Samas, Malaysia
+393 birds+48 mammals
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Pola de Somiedo, Spain
+165 birds+25 mammals
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Segan, Spain
+145 birds+13 mammals
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+151 birds+13 mammals
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+163 birds+12 mammals
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Sami Municipal Unit, Greece
+118 birds+1 mammals
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Ioannina Regional Unit, Greece
+136 birds+4 mammals
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Municipal Unit of Acharnes, Greece
+137 birds+4 mammals
Where pine-clad ridges rise abruptly from the Attica plains, Mount Parnitha National Park unfolds across nearly 4,000 hectares of Mediterranean mountain wilderness. The park's defining character…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKSounio National Park
Municipal Unit of Ayios Konstantinos, Greece
+103 birds
Where rocky headlands plunge into the Aegean Sea along Attica's southeastern coast, Sounio National Park preserves a landscape shaped by millennia of human presence yet alive…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKButrint National Park
Vagalat, Albania
+140 birds+3 mammals
Where the Ionian coast meets ancient alluvial plains, Butrint National Park spans a landscape of extraordinary ecological complexity that has shaped human settlement for three millennia.…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKOlympos National Park
Pieria Regional Unit, Greece
+137 birds+3 mammals
Where the Thessalian plains give way to soaring limestone massifs, Olympos National Park rises as one of the Aegean's most dramatic mountain wilderness areas. This IUCN…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKSamaria National Park
Chania Regional Unit, Greece
+103 birds+1 mammals
Vertical walls of pale limestone rise nearly a kilometre from the Cretan seabed, their flanks carved by the Samaria Gorge into one of Europe's most dramatic…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKKerkini Lake National Park
Serres, Greece
+291 birds+18 mammals
Where the Strymon River widens into a sprawling freshwater lake hemmed by the Rhodope Mountains, Kerkini National Park unfolds across northern Greece as one of southeastern…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKGir National Park
Asundrali, India
+258 birds+13 mammals
Dry deciduous forests cloak the rolling hills of western Gujarat where the Gir landscape rises as a final sanctuary for one of the world's rarest felids:…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKLa Mata de València
Son, Spain
+82 birds+15 mammals
Forests of Mediterranean pine and deciduous woodland blanket the terrain around Son in Lleida, where the Catalan landscape transitions between lowland scrub and denser woodland habitat.…
VIEW FOREST & JUNGLEColl de Pal
La Molina, Spain
+142 birds+12 mammals
Where the eastern Pyrenees descend into Catalonia, alpine meadows and rocky slopes define the character of this mountain pass, a threshold between the high Iberian interior…
VIEW MOUNTAIN & ALPINECabo Peñas
Susacasa, Spain
+303 birds+21 mammals
Where sea cliffs rise sheer from the Bay of Biscay, Susacasa's observation point commands one of Asturias's most dramatic coastal vistas. The landscape here is defined…
VIEW OBSERVATION POINTPort-Cros National Park
Hyères, France
+271 birds+29 mammals
Where Mediterranean granite islands rise from crystalline waters off the Provençal coast, Port-Cros National Park protects one of Europe's most intact marine and terrestrial ecosystems. The…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKPyrénées National Park
Hautes Pyrenees, France
+150 birds+35 mammals
Where alpine meadows give way to limestone cliffs and rushing torrents carve through ancient stone, the Pyrénées National Park spans a landscape of austere beauty along…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKCalanques National Park
Bouches-du-Rhône, France
+233 birds+42 mammals
Where limestone cliffs plunge dramatically into crystalline Mediterranean waters, Calanques National Park preserves one of Europe's most striking coastal landscapes. These steep-sided inlets, carved by erosion…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKAbruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park
Pescasseroli, Italy
+139 birds+18 mammals
Where the central Apennines rise in dramatic limestone and clay ridges, the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park unfolds across one of Italy's most…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKAlta Murgia National Park
Bari, Italy
+168 birds+6 mammals
Across the limestone plateaux of Apulia's interior, where the Adriatic's influence fades into continental warmth, lies a landscape sculpted by millennia of human pastoralism and Mediterranean…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKAppennino Lucano Val d’Agri Lagonegrese National Park
Spinoso, Italy
+121 birds+3 mammals
The Apennine mountains rise in weathered limestone ridges across central Italy, and where they push into Basilicata's interior, the landscape opens into a complex mosaic of…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKCinque Terre National Park
Riomaggiore, Italy
+135 birds+1 mammals
Steep terraced cliffs plunge toward the Ligurian Sea where five villages cling to a Csb-climate coastline shaped by centuries of viticulture and stone masonry. Riomaggiore, the…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKVesuvius National Park
Ottaviano, Italy
+82 birds+4 mammals
The slopes of Vesuvius rise from the Campanian plain in a dramatic cone of volcanic rock and ash, their flanks wrapped in the characteristic vegetation of…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKWolong National Nature Reserve
Wenchuan County, China
+333 birds+17 mammals
Where the Qingyi River cuts through the eastern flanks of the Minshan Range, a temperate montane forest cloaks steep valleys in dense canopy that thins dramatically…
VIEW NATURE RESERVEPoyang Lake National Nature Reserve
Shangrao, China
+270 birds+7 mammals
Where the Yangtze River's massive floodplain spreads across central China, Poyang Lake National Nature Reserve encompasses one of the continent's most dynamic and water-rich wetland systems.…
VIEW NATURE RESERVEGaoligong Mountain National Nature Reserve
Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, China
+443 birds+13 mammals
VIEW NATURE RESERVEBaima Snow Mountain National Nature Reserve
Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, China
+204 birds+3 mammals
High-altitude ridges and steep-sided valleys define this reserve in northwestern Yunnan, where elevations surge from around 3,000 metres to peaks above 4,100 metres. The terrain supports…
VIEW NATURE RESERVESeven Sisters National Nature Reserve
Eastbourne, United Kingdom
+190 birds+15 mammals
Where the South Downs meet the English Channel, the chalk cliffs of Seven Sisters rise in a dramatic sequence of white promontories that have shaped both…
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