About Muscicapa ruficauda Swainson, 1838
The rusty-tailed flycatcher is a small passerine bird belonging to the flycatcher family Muscicapidae. Its range includes mostly northern areas of the Indian subcontinent, parts of southwest India, and isolated populations in Central Asia including Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. This species is partially migratory: Central Asian populations migrate to India, reaching as far south as the southwest Indian Arabian Sea coast in Karnataka and Kerala. Other populations, particularly those across the lower Himalayas, stay in their native ranges year-round and breed there. The rusty-tailed flycatcher is also an occasional vagrant to other regions within India. This bird measures 14 cm (5.5 in) in length and weighs 11–16 g (0.39–0.56 oz), and males and females have similar plumage. In a 2016 molecular phylogenetic study of species in Muscicapa and related genera of the tribe Muscicapini, Gary Voelker and colleagues discovered that the rusty-tailed flycatcher was basal to all other Muscicapini species. The authors proposed placing it in its own monotypic genus Ripleyia, but this name was found to be preoccupied, so it was replaced with Ripleyornis. A later phylogenetic analysis that included species from both Ficedula and Muscicapa found that the rusty-tailed flycatcher belongs to a clade that includes members of the genus Ficedula.
