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Indian paradise flycatcher, Terpsiphone paradisi

Asian Paradise Flycatcher

In 2015, the Asian paradise flycatcher was split into the following three species:

• Indian Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi)
• Blyth's Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone affinis) - It is found from southern China to Sumatra and Melanesia.
• Amur Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone incei) - It is found in China and Manchuria. It is a winter migrant to Southeast Asia.

The Indian Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi), is a medium-sized passerine bird native to Asia that is widely distributed. As the global population is considered stable, it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2004. The birds inhabit Central to Southeast Asia.

Passerine bird

A passerine is any bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or — less accurately — as songbirds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by the arrangement of their toes (three pointing forward and one back), which facilitates perching. With more than 110 families and some 5,100 identified species, Passeriformes is the largest order of birds and among the most diverse orders of terrestrial vertebrates.

The passerines contain several groups of brood parasites such as the viduas, cuckoo-finches, and the cowbirds. Most passerines are omnivorous, while the shrikes are carnivorous.

The terms “passerine” and “Passeriformes” are derived from Passer domesticus, the scientific name of the eponymous species (the House Sparrow) and ultimately from the Latin term passer, which refers to sparrows and similar small birds.

Distribution and habitat
They are migratory and spend the winter season in tropical Asia. There are resident populations in southern India and Sri Lanka, hence both visiting migrants and the locally breeding subspecies occur in these areas in winter.

According to Linné’s first description Indian paradise flycatchers were only distributed in India. Later ornithologists observed this spectacular bird in other areas, and based on differences in plumage of males described several subspecies.

Indian paradise flycatchers inhabit thick forests and well-wooded habitats from Central Asia to south-eastern China, all over India and Sri Lanka to Myanmar.


Range map
Range map from www.oiseaux.net - Ornithological Portal Oiseaux.net
www.oiseaux.net is one of those MUST visit pages if you're in to bird watching. You can find just about everything there

Taxonomy and systematics
The Indian paradise flycatcher was originally described as belonging to the genus Corvus. Paradise-flycatchers used to be classified with the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae, but are now placed in the family Monarchidae together with monarch flycatchers.

Until 2015, the Indian paradise flycatcher, Blyth's paradise flycatcher, and the Amur paradise flycatcher were all considered conspecific, and together called the Asian paradise flycatcher.

Description
Adult Indian paradise flycatchers are 19–22 cm long. Their heads are glossy black with a black crown and crest, their black bill round and sturdy, their eyes black. Female are rufous on the back with a greyish throat and underparts. Their wings are 86–92 mm long. Young males look very much like females but have a black throat and blue-ringed eyes. As adults they develop up to 24 cm long tail feathers with two central tail feathers growing up to 30 cm long drooping streamers.

Young males are rufous and have short tails. They acquire long tails in their second or third year. Adult males are either predominantly bright rufous above or predominantly white. Some specimens show some degree of intermediacy between rufous and white. Long-tailed rufous birds are generally devoid of shaft streaks on the wing and tail feathers, while in white birds the shaft streaks, and sometimes the edges of the wing and tail feathers are black.

In the early 1960s, 680 long-tailed males were examined that are contained in collections of the British Museum of Natural History, Chicago Natural History Museum, Peabody Museum, Carnegie Museum, American Museum of Natural History, United States National Museum and Royal Ontario Museum. The specimens came from almost the entire range of the species, though some areas were poorly represented. The relative frequency of the rufous and white plumage types varies geographically.

Rufous birds are rare in the extreme southeastern part of the species' range. Throughout the Indian area and, to a lesser extent, in China, asymmetrically patterned intermediates occur. Intermediates are rare or absent throughout the rest of the range of the species. In general, long-tailed males are:

• predominantly rufous with some white in wings and tail — collected in Turkestan, Kashmir, northern India, Punjab, Maharashtra, Sikkim and in Sri Lanka;

• predominantly rufous with some white in wings — collected in Iran, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Punjab, Kashmir, northern and central India, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Bihar, Nepal;

• predominantly rufous with some white in tail — collected in Punjab, northern and central India, Kolkata, Sri Lanka and in the Upper Yangtze Valley in China;

• predominantly white with some rufous in tail and wings — collected in Kashmir, Maharashtra, Sichuan and North China;

• predominantly white with some rufous in tail — collected in Maharashtra and Fuzhou, China;

• predominantly white with back partly rufous — collected in Punjab and Chennai;

• moulting from rufous into white plumage — collected in North Bihar.


Possible interpretations of this phenomenon are : males may be polymorphic for rufous and white plumage colour; rufous birds may be sub-adults; and there may even be two sympatric species distinguishable only in the male.

Subspecies

Three subspecies are recognized:
• Himalayan paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi leucogaster) – (Swainson, 1838): Originally described as a separate species. Breeds in the western Tian Shan, in Afghanistan, in the north of Pakistan, in northwestern and central India, in Nepal’s western and central regions; populations occurring in the east of Pakistan and in the south of India migrate towards the foothills of the Himalayas in spring for breeding.

• Terpsiphone paradisi paradisi – (Linnaeus, 1758): breeds in central and southern India, central Bangladesh and south-western Myanmar; populations occurring in Sri Lanka in the winter season are non-breeding.

• Ceylon Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi ceylonensis) – (Zarudny & Harms, 1912): found in Sri Lanka.


Listen to the Indian Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi)
Recorded before 2015 and named Asian Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi)


Listen to the Indian Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi)
Recorded before 2015 and named Asian Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi)


Behaviour and ecology
Indian paradise flycatchers are noisy birds uttering sharp skreek calls. They have short legs and sit very upright whilst perched prominently, like a shrike. They are insectivorous and hunt in flight in the understorey. In the afternoons they dive from perches to bathe in small pools of water.

The breeding season lasts from May to July. Being socially monogamous both male and female take part in nest-building, incubation, brooding and feeding of the young. The incubation period lasts 14 to 16 days and the nestling period 9 to 12 days. Three or four eggs are laid in a neat cup nest made with twigs and spider webs on the end of a low branch.

The nest is sometimes built in the vicinity of a breeding pair of drongos, which keep predators away. Chicks hatch in about 21 to 23 days. A case of interspecific feeding has been noted with paradise flycatcher chicks fed by Oriental white-eyes.

Conservation status
Indian paradise flycatcher, Terpsiphone paradisi
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2016.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

www.birdforum.net


Sighted: (Date of first photo that I could use) 8th of January 2016
Location: Along route #6 Gir National Park


Among others I have used Peter Ericsson's web page Birds of Thailand These galleries contain 668 species of the Birds of Thailand and have been of a great help to identify some of the birds as the birds in Thailand and India are, well, many of them are the same.

I have had most help from my friend, the bird pal I met at Suan Rot Fai. Sending pictures of birds I have not been able to identify to him via Line. 3 minutes later he and he have managed to identify most of the birds I have had problems with. THANKS! Visit his web page m☥lever for his beautiful pictures.

PLEASE! As I'm a first time birdwatcher bear in mind that some of the bird can be wrongly named. I have bought book and I confirm on the internet to get the right identity on the birds I take pictures off. But there can still be mistakes.

Indian paradise flycatcher, Terpsiphone paradisi
Indian paradise flycatcher - 8th of January 2016 - Gir National Park

Indian paradise flycatcher, Terpsiphone paradisi
Indian paradise flycatcher - 8th of January 2016 - Gir National Park

Indian paradise flycatcher, Terpsiphone paradisi
Indian paradise flycatcher - 8th of January 2016 - Gir National Park

Indian paradise flycatcher, Terpsiphone paradisi
Indian paradise flycatcher - 8th of January 2016 - Gir National Park

Indian paradise flycatcher, Terpsiphone paradisi
Indian paradise flycatcher - 8th of January 2016 - Gir National Park

Indian paradise flycatcher, Terpsiphone paradisi
Indian paradise flycatcher - 8th of January 2016 - Gir National Park

Indian paradise flycatcher, Terpsiphone paradisi
Indian paradise flycatcher - 8th of January 2016 - Gir National Park

Indian paradise flycatcher, Terpsiphone paradisi
Indian Paradise Flycatcher - 1 April 2018 - Chitwan National Park, Nepal



PLEASE! If I have made any mistakes identifying any bird, PLEASE let me know on my guestbook



       
                  



                                       

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