Sooty-headed Bulbul
Pycnonotus aurigaster
A dark-headed brown bulbul with a bright red vent; common in towns, plantations, and forest edges. Red-vented Bulbul, with which it overlaps in southwestern China, can be similar, but it has a completely black head. Juvenile has orange vent and can be confused with Brown-breasted Bulbul, but the latter has a more strongly peaked head, no white tail trimming, brown auriculars, and a more contrasting white throat. Often seen in pairs and small flocks, foraging at mid-level and on the ground. Song consists of high-pitched warbling calls.
Identification
A medium-sized songbird measuring between 18 and 21 centimetres in length with a short crest, the sooty-headed bulbul can be distinguished from the similar red-vented bulbul by its tan front, less extensive area of black on its head and gold-colored vent in certain subspecies. Its call is a series of whistled notes similar in tone to that of the red-whiskered bulbul, but delivered in a more hurried manner.
Taxonomy
The sooty-headed bulbul was originally described in the genus Turdus. Alternate names for the sooty-headed bulbul include the golden-vented bulbul and several names used for other species (black-capped, red-vented, white-eared and yellow-vented bulbul).<p>Nine subspecies are recognized:
- Scientific name
- Pycnonotus aurigaster
- Authority
- (Vieillot, 1818)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Pycnonotidae
- Genus
- Pycnonotus
Range and habitat
The sooty-headed bulbul can be found in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, southern China, Hong Kong, Macao, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. In China, the species is mainly limited to the south of the country, corresponding to the extent of the palaeotropical ecoregion, but the species has been recorded as far north as Shanghai in the east and Chengdu in the west. The bird has a disjunct distribution broken into two subpopulations by the Malay Peninsula, where it does not seem to occur between Prachuap Khiri Khan province in Thailand in the north, and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in the south.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
In Hong Kong, the sooty-headed bulbul, whilst not a rarity, is markedly less common than the red-whiskered and light-vented bulbuls. Unlike these two species, it appears to prefer dryland agricultural areas above other habitats, but can also be found in fire-damaged and degraded hill shrubland.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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