redstart, common name for an Old World thrush of the genus
Phoenicurus, family Turdidae. A small, slender-legged songbird,
it is found in woodlands, parks, and heaths. The European
redstart, P. phoenicurus, also known as the firetail, breeds as
far north as Scotland but winters in Africa. It is red-tailed
and black-throated, with a bay-colored breast and ash-blue back
and cap. It is a solitary bird and is highly aggressive during
its breeding season. The Japanese P. aurorea is the easternmost
representative of the genus. Redstarts build crude, cup-shaped
nests either near the ground or in the hole of a tree or
building. They lay from five to seven greenish-blue, faintly
red-spotted eggs per clutch. The common name redstart is also
used for several species of small New World wood-warblers,
family Parulidae, in the genera Stetophaga and Myioborus. These
are aerial insect catchers with wide, flat bills surrounded by
stiff whiskerlike bristles called vibrissae. Like the Old World
redstarts, to which they are not