Broad-tailed Grassbird
Schoenicola platyurus
A rare resident endemic to grassy moist highlands of the Western Ghats. A large warbler-like bird with rufous brown upperparts, long brown tail, buffy underparts, white throat and supercilum, and thick beak. Male performs song flights during breeding season; the song is a lark-like repeated trill that is accompanied by fanned tail and fluttering flight. The gape color is black in males, and obvious during song, but is brown in females.The nest is a ball of coarse grass blades with an entrance on the side, placed low in a tussock of long grass.
Identification
The uniform brown upperparts with a broad, round-tipped and long graduated tail are distinctive features of this bird. The species has a buff supercilium and the brown tail has thin dark bars. The underside of the tail is very dark and the feathers are tipped with white. Males and females are indistinguishable in plumage. The call of the male during breeding is a lark-like and repeated trill that is accompanied by fanned tail and a fluttering flight. Other calls include a chack and a zink note. The gape colour is black and visible in singing males but is brown in females. In the non-breeding season, it is a skulker moving rapidly between grass and reeds but sometimes perching in the open.
Taxonomy
The species has in former times included the African Schoenicola brevirostris, which was originally called Catriscus apicalis and later Schoenicola platyura brevirostris. The Indian species was first described by Jerdon who found the bird at the base of the Gudalur ghat in the foothills of the Nilgiris. The bill is short and strong with the culmen slightly curved, and there are two rictal bristles. The tarsus is somewhat long for the proportions. The populations north and south of the Palghat gap are said to differ in plumage shade: the northern form being larger, paler and greyer above with the flanks sandy-brown; the southern form is dark rufous brown above and more whitish below with bright buff on the breast and flanks. This plumage variation was earlier believed to be seasonal. Molecular phylogeny studies place the genus in the warbler subfamily Megalurinae (along with Megalurus, Chaetornis and Graminicola). A study of the group shows that the African S. brevirostris and S. platyurus are not closely related and that S. platyurus is a sister of Chaetornis striata.
- Scientific name
- Schoenicola platyurus
- Authority
- (Jerdon, 1841)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Locustellidae
- Genus
- Schoenicola
Range and habitat
The broad-tailed grassbird is restricted to grassy moist highlands, principally in the Western Ghats of southern India mainly south of Karnataka but with some records from Pune, Lonavala and Nasik. A specimen was collected by S. A. Hussain at Point Calimere that suggests that the bird may be involved in local movements or migrations, possibly into Sri Lanka. Suggestions that it may occur in Sri Lanka are as yet not well supported; there is an old specimen (collected by H. Cumming, who has been considered unreliable, and doubtfully identified by Colonel Legge) and two unconfirmed sight records from Gammaduwa, Matale Hills, and Waitalawa, Rangala Hills. The species has not been reported from the Biligirirangan Hills.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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