Black Paradise-Flycatcher
Terpsiphone atrocaudata
Graceful songbird of well-shaded forests, particularly stream gullies; often in more open habitat in migration. Stunning breeding male purplish-black above and white below, with a short crest, neon-blue eyerings, and long black tail streamers. Female and non-breeding male have dark gray head and chest, paler eyering, shorter crest, and chestnut-brown wings and tail, without streamers. Compare with female and non-breeding male Amur and Blyth’s paradise-flycatchers, with which Black overlaps on its Southeast Asian wintering grounds. Note Black’s contiguous dark gray throat and chest (Amur has a more sharply-demarcated black throat and gray chest), dull darkish wings (Blyth’s has brighter rufous wings), and fairly clean demarcation between gray breast and white belly (Blyth’s has a more gradual fade). Song a run-on series of coarse whistles; call a rough, nasal “bee.”
Identification
The black paradise flycatcher is similar in appearance to both the Amur paradise flycatcher and Blyth's paradise flycatcher, but is slightly smaller. Mature males have a black hood with a purplish-blue gloss which shades into blackish-grey on the chest. The underparts are off-white to white. The mantle, back, wings and rump are plain dark chestnut. The tail has extremely long black central feathers, which are shorter in immature males. Unlike the Asian paradise flycatcher there is no white morph. The female resembles the male but is duller and darker brown on the chestnut areas. It has black legs and feet, a large black eye with a blue eye-ring, and a short blue bill.<p>The song is rendered in Japanese as tsuki-hi-hoshi, hoi-hoi-hoi, which translates to Moon-Sun-Stars and gives the Japanese name of the bird サンコウチョウ (三光鳥) sankōchō (literally, bird of three lights, i.e. moon, sun, star, from san three + kō lights + chō bird).
Taxonomy
The black paradise flycatcher was previously classified with the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae, but the paradise-flycatchers, monarch flycatchers and Australasian fantails are now normally grouped with the drongos in the family Dicruridae, which has most of its members in Australasia and tropical southern Asia.<p>Three subspecies are recognized:
- Scientific name
- Terpsiphone atrocaudata
- Authority
- (Eyton, 1839)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Monarchidae
- Genus
- Terpsiphone
Range and habitat
In Jeju-do of South Korea, Gotjawal Forest, a forest formed on a rocky area of volcanic AA Lava, is one of the important breeding sites of black paradise flycatcher<p>A recent survey detected a steep decline in part of the Japanese breeding population which has presumably occurred because of forest loss and degradation in its winter range. [citation needed]
- Breeding range
- PAL : e, also far n Philippines
- Non-breeding range
- se Asia and Philippines
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Sooty-fronted Spinetail
Synallaxis frontalis
Medium-sized spinetail with a black throat that is found in open woodlands, at forest edges, and in savannas. Note the rufous crown, wings, and tail that contrast with the brown back and pale gray face and belly. The song is high-pitched series of “tepee-tepee” notes repeated for long periods.
Gray-flanked Cinclodes
Cinclodes oustaleti
Fairly common in the high Andes of central Chile and adjacent Argentina, where found at bogs, lakeshores, and along streams, usually with rocky slopes nearby. Migrates in winter to coast, where it occurs on rocky beaches. Relatively small and sprightly, often flicking wings and cocking its tail strongly, unlike the larger Dark-bellied and Seaside Cinclodes, which occur alongside in winter. Dark-bellied has bolder white head stripes and gray flanks (flanks brown on Gray-flanked!). Told from Buff-winged Cinclodes by colder plumage tones and white-streaked breast.
Little Bee-eater
Merops pusillus
A small, mostly grass-green bee-eater with a canary-yellow throat separated from buff underparts by a black line across the throat. Singles and pairs occupy grassy savanna and wetland edges. They often perch lower than 1.5 m above the ground, and dart around hunting flying insects, then returning to the same small twig. Calls include a sibilant “s-lip” and other high-pitched notes. The Blue-breasted Bee-eater is slightly larger and has a white patch on the cheek. The much larger Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater has burnt orange underparts, and it prefers highland forest above 1800 m.
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