Blue Whistling Thrush Myophonus caeruleus

The beautiful Blue Whistling Thrush is midnight blue with a row of pearls on its wing. As birds see it, the plumage shines in ultra-violet. The beak is yellow and black. It is native to low mountain areas along the Himalayas in Central Asia and northern Indian subcontinent through to China and Southeast Asia.

Whistling Thrushes are thrush size with thrush habits but are related to flycatchers. They generally live along streams and, like thrushes, eat snails and small crustaceans, often using a rock as an anvil.

Male and female Blue Whistling Thrushes have similar plumage. Nests are usually in rock crevices near water. All photos on this page except the bird in flight are by Alexandra Makhnina, and all are from Almaty, Kazakhstan.