Black-winged Cuckooshrike
Lalage melaschistos
An overall sooty-colored cuckooshrike with broad white tips to the tail feathers. Male is dark sooty-gray with a slaty sheen, slightly paler on rump. Underparts paler toward tail; wings black. Female is very similar to male, but paler in general, often weakly barred with dark and pale gray on underparts. Male has a black mask, while female has dark lores and a faint eyering. Juvenile is blackish-brown above and brownish-gray below, heavily scaled whitish all over, with broad white tips on wing feathers. Immature like female, but more strongly and extensively barred below. Song is a loud series of whistles “pe-pe-pe-peew-peew-pew”; sometimes the starting notes are skipped. Found in all types of woodlands, including broad-leaved forests, sometimes even near cultivation during non-breeding season.
Identification
A medium-sized, dark cuckoo-shrike with unbarred, grey underparts.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Lalage melaschistos
- Authority
- (Hodgson, 1836)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Campephagidae
- Genus
- Lalage
Range and habitat
They breed in summer in mountains from 300–2450 meters and migrate altitudinally or south in winter. It is distributed from Northeast Pakistan through the lower Himalayan region (Uttarakhand, Nepal, Arunachal Pradesh and into the hills of NE Myanmar continuing to China and Southeast Asia. It winters in the foothills, occasionally longer distances south west to northern parts of peninsular India and east to Orissa, Bengal and Bangladesh, but may travel as far south as Kerala).<p>Habitat: Breeds in deciduous and broad-leaved evergreen forest but winters in open forest, groves, singly or in pairs. They are also known to join mixed feeding parties. Their diet consists mainly of caterpillars, beetles and other bugs.
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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