Ring ouzel

The ring ouzel is a mainly European member of the thrush family Turdidae, a medium-sized thrush around 23 to 24 centimeters long and weighing 90 to 138 grams. The male is predominantly black with a conspicuous white crescent across the breast, while females are browner and duller and young birds may lack the pale chest markings entirely. Outside the northernmost part of its range it is a high-altitude species, with three subspecies breeding in mountains from Ireland east to Iran, favoring open mountain terrain with scattered trees or shrubs such as juniper, rowan, bilberry and heather. It is migratory, wintering in southern Europe, North Africa and Turkey, typically in juniper-covered mountains, and lays a typical clutch of three to six brown-flecked pale blue or greenish-blue eggs incubated almost entirely by the female.