Red-flanked Bluetail - Successful breeding in Sotkamo

This summer I was lucky to witness a successful breeding of Red-flanked Bluetail in Finland. I found a nest in Sotkamo and I ringed 3 chicks and the female there. Both of the adults were 2nd cy birds. This is the 6th Red-flanked Bluetail nest ever found in Finland, and probably also 6th ever found in the whole Europe outside Russia.


The nest site. The exact place for the nest is in the front of
the large pine. You can see the hole in the moss.


21.6. - I found the nest and the chicks were that size.


27.6. - After 6 days the chicks were like this and I ringed them.



There were three chicks and a one unhatched egg in the nest.

Ringing the chicks.

Red-flanked Bluetail (Tarsiger cyanurus) 2nd cy female.
The breeding female of the nest.

The breast and head pattern.

The pattern of GCs. This bird has moulted three

innermost GCs.

The pattern of PCs and ALs.

The tail pattern is very confusing. TFs are very adult-like

with broad and rounded tips.

The colour of the upper mandible is not very black and it's

good for a 2nd cy bird. Anyway, this bird is the only female

I have seen in hand so I don't know if there can be some

difference in this colour between sexes. Maybe even adult

females never have as black upper mandible as males?

There are many things that we don't know about this species

and this is one of them.

The incubation patch.

When compared to a 2nd cy male, it seems that there are some differences in colours. Males have brighter red in flanks and brighter blue in uppertail coverts and in the fringes of tail feathers. But still I don't know how an adult female can look like. Can they reach males in the colours of those feathers?