Figure 267. Most of California’s Rufous-backed Robins have been found in the deserts during late fall and winter. A few have remained into early spring, including this adult photographed in late March 1996 at Borrego Springs in San Diego County (1996-061; Brian E. Small).

 

Figure 380. A watercolor rendering (reproduced in grayscale) of the second Rufous-backed Robin to be found at Furnace Creek Ranch, Inyo County. The bird was present for a week, and this study was made on 27 November 1999, the last day it was seen (1999-195; Andrew Birch).

 

 

 

 

 

RUFOUS-BACKED ROBIN Turdus rufopalliatus Lafresnaye, 1840

Accepted: 13 (87%)	Treated in Appendix H: yes
Not accepted: 2	CBRC review: all records
Not submitted/reviewed: 0	Large color image: see Figures

This tropical species is considered resident along the Pacific slope of Mexico from southern Sonora south to Oaxaca (T. r. rufopalliatus). The paler T. r. graysoni, possibly a distinct species (see Phillips 1981, Howell and Webb 1995), occupies the Islas Tres Marías and has been collected on the adjacent mainland of Nayarit. The species is casual in southeastern Arizona (nearly annual in winter), New Mexico, western and southern Texas, and southwestern Utah (NAB 59:301, 371).

California’s first Rufous-backed Robin was present from 17 December 1973 to 6 April 1974 along the Colorado River at Imperial Dam, Imperial County (see Kaufman 1997:300). The state’s 13 records are from late fall and winter (5 November–16 April), a temporal distribution consistent with that seen in Arizona, where more than 70 records have accumulated (Rosenberg and Witzeman 1999). The only two birds found on the coast wintered together in Newport Beach, Orange County. Phillips (1991:58) questioned their natural occurrence, but these records fit temporally with this species’ pattern of occurrence in southeastern California, and with the general pattern established by other Mexican vagrants that have reached the coast (e.g., Nutting’s Flycatcher, Thick-billed Kingbird, Streak-backed Oriole). More recently, from 21 to 24 December 2002, Rufous-backed Robins again appeared in tandem, this time at Laguna Dam in Imperial County. See also Appendix H.