Not all White-throated Dipper Cinclus cinclus have the large white bib from chin to breast. Some races, such as przewalskii, have dark morphs. Dark morph distinguished from Brown DipperC. pallasii by faint brown bib and blackish-slate mantle, wings, and tail. Brown Dipper has less contrasting chocolate-brown plumage. Photo: Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai, China, July. (Craig Brelsford)The bib is whiter on this dark-morph przewalskii. Gequ Creek (32.649642, 97.204978), Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai, elev. 4280 m (14,050 ft.), July. (Craig Brelsford)Pale-morph White-throated Dipper showing white chin, throat, and breast. White-throated Dipper occurs patchily from Scotland and North Africa to Mongolia and central China. In China leucogaster is in the Tianshan and Kunlun Mountains, cashmeriensis in Himalayas, southeast Tibet, and northwest Yunnan, and przewalskii on eastern Tibetan Plateau from Gansu and Qinghai to Sichuan and Tibet. Mainly resident along swift-flowing, clear mountain streams from 2400–4500 m (7,870–14,760 ft.). Photo: przewalskii, Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai, July. (Craig Brelsford)White-throated Dipper feeds mostly by plunging into fast-flowing mountain streams. In deep water, it submerges itself completely, swimming underwater; in shallow water, as here, it wades, limiting submersion to the head. Clockwise from top L: The dipper approaches the water, checks for danger, immerses its head, and re-emerges. Qinghai, July. (Craig Brelsford)White-throated Dipper also forages along streams. It is never far from water. (Craig Brelsford)
MacKinnon, John. Guide to the Birds of China. Oxford University Press, 2022.
Ormerod, S.J. and S.J. Tyler. Species account for White-throated Dipper in family Cinclidae (Dippers). P. 353 in del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Christie, D.A. eds. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 10. Cuckooshrikes to Thrushes. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain, 2005.
