Dusky Broadbill
Corydon sumatranus
Strange-looking bird with predominantly dark plumage, a pale “bib,” and an enormous, deep-set pink bill. Its long body and bulky build makes it seem more like an aberrant roller than a large broadbill. Forages like a roller, frequently making forays from a perch, but much more social, often being encountered in noisy medium-sized groups. Found in forests from lowlands up into the highlands, typically in wetter areas. Gives many different calls, including an ascending series of squeaky notes, as well as mellow single notes and less pleasant-sounding croaks and rattles.
Identification
It is mostly a charcoal gray color with a pale-yellow throat and red bill. It has a brown eye ring. There is a single white band on the wings and some white bands on the underside of the tail.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Corydon sumatranus
- Authority
- (Raffles, 1822)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Eurylaimidae
- Genus
- Corydon
Range and habitat
The dusky broadbill is found in moist and dry tropical and subtropical broadleaf forests, tropical swamps, and cloud forests with an upper elevation limit of 2000 metres in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Singapore, as well as the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Crested Barbet
Trachyphonus vaillantii
A chunky, pale-billed, crested, fiery-colored barbet. Pairs are resident in wooded grasslands, savanna, broadleaved woodlands, and gardens, where they forage for fruit and insects, moving slowly through the lower strata of trees or hopping on the ground. The call is an incessant, unmusical, dry, insect-like trill that rises towards the end.
Olivaceous Schiffornis
Schiffornis olivacea
Shy, furtive bird that is heard far more often than seen. Shaped like a large manakin; mostly plain greenish-brown with unique large-eyed look. Found in mature rainforest and older second-growth. Often alone but may follow mixed-species flocks; takes low perches and looks around slowly; consumes fruit and insects. In premontane forests of the tepui region, compare with Olive Manakin; schiffornis is substantially larger and more brownish. Call is a slurred, sharply inflected whistle given at long intervals and easily imitated.
Bronze-winged Parrot
Pionus chalcopterus
A medium-sized parrot that usually looks all dark. With a good view, note the deep bluish-purple color overall with bronzy wings, messy pink splotches on the upper breast, and red undertail coverts. In flight, the bright blue underwings often stand out. Also look for the very deep wingbeats that seem to almost touch on the downstroke and barely come above horizontal on the upstroke – this helps separate members of the Pionus genus from the larger Amazona parrots. Bronze-winged is fairly common in forest and adjacent clearings in lowlands and foothills, up to around 2,500m. It is usually found in small flocks, most often seen in flight but also perched in the canopy or around fruiting trees.
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