NOTES 
The small size, round body shape, proportionally short-tailed and long-legged ap- 
pearance, and behavior (skulking and tail bobbing) identified the three birds as small 
thrushes or chats in the palearctic genus Luscinia, of which there are 11 species 
(Monroe and Sibley 1993). The Rufous-tailed Robin is distinctive as the only small 
Luscinia featuring a combination of brown upperparts with a contrasting rufous tail 
(Figures 1 and 4), white breast, belly, and undertail coverts, and an obvious pattern 
of brownish gray scales on the underparts (Figures 2 and 3; see MacKinnon and Phil- 
lipps 2000, Robson 2000). These characters were evident on all the Alaska birds, 
and each was marked with a pale buff eye ring and dull buff supraloral area between 
the eye and the bill (Figures 1 and 3). 
Other species of Luscinia are either much larger (e.g., the nightingales L. mega- 
rhynchos and L. luscinia ) or distinctively marked. Females of five species (the Sibe- 
rian Blue Robin, L. cyane, Indian Blue Robin, L. brunnea, Blackthroat, L. obscura, 
Firethroat, L. pectardens, and Rufous-headed Robin, L. ruficeps) are most similar 
to the Rufous-tailed Robin in their shape and obscure markings. All, however, have 
some degree of buff or olive coloration on the underparts, which is generally lacking 
in the Rufous- tailed Robin. Female Siberian Blue and Rufous-headed robins have scaly 
patterns on the underparts but also have an olive-brown dorsum and buff throat and 
chest (Siberian Blue Robin) or an olive-tinged breast and flanks (Rufous-headed Robin). 
Females of the Blackthroat also exhibit a rufous tail (“rufescent-tinged uppertail- 
coverts, warm-tinged brown tail”; Robson 2000 but, in addition to buff underparts, 
have darkish (rather than pink) legs and lack a scaly pattern on the underparts. 
Given the vigorous birding coverage of Attu and of the Bering Sea islands of St. 
Paul and St. Lawrence, these three sightings of the Rufous-tailed Robin represent 
the detection of yet another Asiatic species of only extralimital occurrence in western 
Alaska, like so many other birds recorded at those localities over the years. The fact 
that all three sightings in Alaska fell within a five-day window suggests a consistent 
timing of migration through areas exposing this species to weather systems able to 
blow it off course. 
We thank Attour, Inc., the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and UAM for their 
integral roles in our field work at Attu and St. Paul islands. For their efforts to help 
document these occurrences we acknowledge the diligence of George Armistead, 
Cameron D. Cox, Jan and Diantha Knott, Gary H. Rosenberg, and Gregory L. 
Thomson. The review and comments by Paul Leader regarding the identification 
of the first Rufous-tailed Robin on Attu were greatly appreciated. G. Vernon Byrd, 
Jon L. Dunn, Theodore G. Tobish, Jr., D. Shutler, and Jeffrey C. Williams provided 
reviews that greatly improved our manuscript. Finally, we thank Daniel D. Gibson 
for his thorough review of our manuscript and information and photographs of the 
specimen collected at Attu. 
LITERATURE CITED 
Banks, R. C., Cicero, C., Dunn, J. L., Kratter, A. W., Rasmussen, P. C., Remsen, J. V., 
Jr., Rising, J. D., and Stotz, D. F. 2004. Forty-fifth supplement to the American 
Ornithologists’ Union Check-list of North American Birds. Auk 121:985-995. 
Brazil, M. A. 1991. The Birds of Japan. Smithsonian Inst. Press, Washington, 
D.C. 
Dement’ev, G. P., and Gladkov, N. A. 1954. The Birds of the Soviet Union, Vol. 
VI. English translation 1968 by Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Je- 
rusalem. 
Gibson, D. D., Heinl, S. C., and Tobish, T. G., Jr. 2003. Report of the Alaska Checklist 
Committee, 1997-2002. W. Birds 34:122-132. 
240 
