Pied Bush Chat female

A Pied Bush Chat female Saxicola caprata perched on sticks in a very dry area of rice paddy fields en route between Chiang Mai and Doi Inthanon National Park was making occasional sorties to find food. With its male partner, these were the only members of their species which we saw on our tour of Thailand. The male was in breeding plumage and the female may be as well.

Pied Bush Chat is a small passerine with a large range from West Asia and Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent and South east Asia. About sixteen subspecies are recognised through its wide range with many island forms. The subspecies of the birds which we saw is likely to be S.c.burmanicus which is found in peninsular India E to Myanmar and S China (S Sichuan, Yunnan), S to Thailand and Indochina. The male of this subspecies has the white on the abdomen restricted towards the vent.

It is a familiar bird of countryside and open scrub or grassland where it is found perched at the top of short thorn trees or other shrubs, looking out for insect prey. They pick up insects mainly from the ground, and were, like other chats, placed in the thrush family Turdidae, but are now considered as Old World flycatchers Muscicapidae.

They nest in cavities in stone walls or in holes in an embankment, lining the nest with grass and animal hair. The males are black with white shoulder and vent patches whose extent varies among populations. Females are predominantly brownish while juveniles are speckled.

Reference: Wikipedia