Phoenicurus ochruros
Silhouette: Martin Bulla, based on François Desbordes' illustration · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The black redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros) is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family. It is a widespread breeder in rocky habitats across Eurasia and North Africa, from the British Isles south to Morocco and east to central China. It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but northern and eastern birds migrate.
The first formal description of the black redstart was by the German naturalist Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin in 1774 under the binomial name Mottacilla ochruros. The species is now placed in the genus Phoenicurus that was introduced in 1817 by the English naturalist Thomas Forster. Both parts of the scientific name are from Ancient Greek and refer to the colour of the tail. The genus name Phoenicurus is from phoinix, "red", and -ouros -"tailed", and the specific ochruros is from okhros, "pale yellow" and -ouros. Obsolete common names include Tithys redstart, blackstart (not to be confused with the species currently known as blackstart) and black redtail.
The black redstart is a member of a temperate Eurasian clade, which also includes the Daurian redstart, Hodgson's redstart, the white-winged redstart and perhaps Przevalski's... Wikipedia →
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barcelona Zoo | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 2 | Aquarama Barcelona | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 3 | Maison des Vautours | 🇫🇷 France |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black Redstart sighting in Algiers on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 40th most-seen of the 49 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Black Redstart in Algiers on a given day, against about 10% in March–May, October and December, the lowest months. That is one of Algiers's wettest months, with about 90 mm of rain against 5 mm in July. January–February and June–September have too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black Redstart sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
39th of 96
Of the 96 cities where we can rate Black Redstart sightings, Algiers ranks 39th at about 10%. The best odds are in Lisbon (Portugal, about 70%), Porto (Portugal, about 40%) and Antalya (Turkey, about 40%).
Same family: Muscicapidae
The closest relatives of the Black Redstart that you can see in Algiers (family Muscicapidae, Old World Flycatchers, Robins, and Chats) are European Robin (about 30%), Blue Rock-Thrush (about 20%) and Spotted Flycatcher (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black Redstart is recorded against all the birds logged in Algiers (6 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
