Ring ouzel
The ring ouzel is a mainly European member of the thrush family Turdidae. It is a medium-sized thrush, in length and weighing. The male is predominantly black with a conspicuous white crescent across its breast. Females are browner and duller than males, and young birds may lack the pale chest markings altogether. In all but the northernmost part of its range, this is a high-altitude species, with three subspecies breeding in mountains from Ireland east to Iran. It breeds in open mountain areas with some trees or shrubs, the latter often including juniper and other treeline conifers, rowan, bilberry, heather, and hairy alpenrose. It is a migratory bird, leaving the breeding areas to winter in southern Europe, North Africa and Turkey, typically in mountains with junipers. The typical clutch is 3–6 brown-flecked pale blue or greenish-blue eggs. They are incubated almost entirely by the female, with hatching normally occurring after 13 days. The altricial, downy chicks fledge in another 14 days and are dependent on their parents for about 12 days after fledging.
The ring ouzel is omnivorous, eating invertebrates, particularly insects and earthworms, some small vertebrates, and a wide range of fruit. Most animal prey is caught on the ground. During spring migration and the breeding season, invertebrates dominate the adult's diet and are also fed to the chicks. Later in the year, fruit becomes more important, particularly the common juniper.
With an extensive range and a large population, the ring ouzel is evaluated as least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. There are signs of decline in several countries; suspected causes including climate change, human disturbance, hunting and outdoor leisure activities. Loss of junipers may also be a factor in some areas. Natural hazards include predation by mammalian carnivores and birds of prey, and locally there may also be competition from other large thrushes such as the common blackbird, mistle thrush and fieldfare.
Etymology
"Ouzel" is an old name for the common blackbird, the word being cognate with the German Amsel. "Ouzel" may also be applied to a group of superficially similar but more distantly related birds, the dippers, the European representative of which is sometimes known as the water ouzel. "Ring Ouzel" was first used by John Ray in his 1674 Collection of English Words not Generally Used and became established with his 1678 book The Ornithology of Francis Willughby of Middleton in the County of Warwick. As with the English term, the scientific name also refers to the male's prominent white neck crescent, being derived from the Latin words turdus, "thrush", and torquatus, "collared". Old and local names for the ring ouzel include "fell blackbird", "hill blackbird", "moor blackbird", "rock ouzel" and "mountain blackbird".Taxonomy
The ring ouzel was first described by Carl Linnaeus under its current scientific name in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. He noted earlier descriptions by Francis Willughby and Eleazar Albin, both of whom gave it the name Merula torquata.There are 104 species of medium to large thrushes in the genus Turdus. They are characterised by rounded heads, medium or longish pointed wings, and usually melodious songs.
A 2020 study of the genetics of Turdus suggested that the genus arose about 9.37 million years ago, expanding out of Africa around 7.2 Mya, and diverging into Palearctic and Oriental groups about 5.7 Mya. Further radiation from Africa to the Americas followed at about 5.3 Mya. Details of the study suggest that the ring ouzel, a member of the Eurasian group, may be more closely related to Naumann's and dusky thrushes than to the superficially more similar common blackbird.
Subspecies
The ring ouzel has three recognised subspecies:| Image | Scientific name | Distribution | Identification |
Cairngorm, Scotland | T. t. torquatus Linnaeus, 1758 | Breeds Ireland, Great Britain to Scandinavia and the far northwest of Russia; winters from Spain south to northwest Africa and the Canary Islands | Black plumage with moderate pale fringes |
Hohe Tauern, Austria | T. t. alpestris | Breeds in the mountains of Iberia, the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Carpathians, and the Balkan Mountains, and with small outlying populations in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria, the Haut Vosges of Belgium, and the higher hills of northern Germany; winters in northern Africa, southern Europe and southern Turkey | All body feathering with strong pale fringes, giving a very 'scaly' appearance |
Artashavan, Armenia | T. t. amicorum E. Hartert, 1923 | Breeds in central and eastern Turkey east through the Caucasus and Elburz Mountains to Turkmenistan; winters mainly in Iran and parts of Iraq | Blackest plumage with minimal pale fringing on the body feathers, but with very strong pale wing panel |
Analysis of mitochondrial DNA samples from across Europe suggests that this species had a much broader distribution after the Last Glacial Period that ended about 11,700 years ago than it does now.
Description
The ring ouzel is in length and weighs. The plumage of the male of the nominate race is entirely black except for a conspicuous white crescent on the breast, narrow greyish scaling on the upperparts and belly and pale edges to the wing feathers. The bill is yellow and the legs are greyish brown. The female resembles the male but is browner and with a duller breast band. Juveniles are like the female, but with a faint or non-existent breast crescent.The pale breast marking makes adults of this species unmistakeable; first-winter males also sometimes show a pale crescent. Other young ouzels can be confused with the common blackbird, but always show a paler wing panel than that species.
Males of T. t. alpestris have broader white scalloping on their underparts than T. t. torquatus, giving a distinctly scaly appearance below. The wing panel is also paler than in the nominate subspecies. Females are much as the nominate race, but with broad white fringes on the chin and throat. Males of T. t. amicorum have the largest and whitest breast band of the three subspecies, and the broader white edges and tips of the wing feathers form a distinctive whitish panel in the wing. Females have narrow white fringes on their underparts. Adult ring ouzels undergo a complete moult after breeding from late June to early September, before their autumn migration. Juveniles have a partial moult between July and September, replacing their head, body and wing covert feathers.
Voice
The male ring ouzel sings from a low perch or occasionally in flight. The song consists of a repetition of 2–4 plaintive fluty notes, ,, with pauses between repeats. The call is a loud ', becoming harsher if the bird is alarmed. The contact call is a soft ' in flight. Males sing most frequently at dawn and sunset.Distribution and habitat
The ring ouzel breeds discontinuously across western and northern Europe from north-west Ireland through Scandinavia to northwest Russia, and in mountains across central southern Europe from the Pyrenees through the Alps, the Balkans, Greece and Turkey east to Turkmenistan. In 2014, breeding was recorded on the Timan Ridge, Arkhangelsk Oblast, about further east than previously known breeding sites in north Russia.The species is migratory, birds leaving the breeding areas in September and October. Birds of the nominate subspecies winter in southern Spain and northwest Africa. Central European populations of T. t. alpestris move to higher elevations initially before moving south or southwest through the Swiss Alps; some two weeks later migrants of the nominate form pass through the same area to winter in the south of the breeding range or around the Mediterranean. Eastern alpestris ouzels migrate through the Balkans and Turkey. T. t. amoricus moves south to Egypt and neighbouring areas. The return migration is mainly in March and April, the males arriving some days before the females. Northern breeders arrive later, and in the mountains, some birds may ascend in stages as the snow melts. Many birds stop off at traditional well-grazed grassland locations in both spring and autumn.
The ring ouzel is extinct in Latvia and occurs only on migration in Denmark. It is a passage migrant in Syria and a vagrant to Iceland, Jordan, the Arabian Peninsula, Sudan, Kazakhstan, Mauritania, Svalbard and Jan Mayen. In the Atlantic, it is a regular winter visitor to the Canary Islands but a rarity in the Azores and Madeira.
In middle latitudes, the ring ouzel is a bird of continental mountains, but in the north of its range, it is found in coastal uplands. It can cope with wind and rain but avoids ice and snow. Nominate T. t. torquatus is usually found on open moorland with a few stunted trees above, and reaching in Scotland and northern Europe. In Switzerland, ring ouzels breed on rugged upland slopes with heather, conifers, beech or hairy alpenrose at, although in Turkey birds are found from sea level to. In Armenia and the Caucasus, it occupies similar steep habitat with conifer stands, rhododendron thickets, and juniper scrub and shrub, from sea level to.
In northwest Africa ring ouzels winter in juniper forest at, often near rivers or ponds. On migration, ouzels may occur on coastal grassland and steep hillsides with short, unsown wild grass and sparse scrub.