Rock Thrush - Monticola saxatilis

Birding puzzle today.

During another hot walk today along the ridge line overlooking Marbella, we spotted a number of Rock Thrushes on a cliff. They were all singing away, their tunes echoing around the bowl of a giant cirque in between bouts of snatching flies from the air.

On returning to base it turned out that there are two varieties of Rock Thrush here - the Blue Rock Thrush (Monticola solitarius) and the Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush or just Common Rock Thrush (Monticola saxatilis). The numerous photographs that I took showed various birds on the same cliff and it appears that we had both varieties as there were some that were completely blue all over (Blue Rock Thrush), and some that had rufous chests and rufous tails (Common Rock Thrush). Apparently, to be sure you have to spot the tails of the Rock Thrushes as the Blue ones can have rufous chests too!

Oh, and another interesting fact is that they were originally classified as Thrushes (Turdus), but have since been moved and reclassified as Chats (Monticola).

… and one more thing … the Common Rock Thrush is less common than the Blue Rock Thrush.