Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike
Encyclopedia
The Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike (Hemipus picatus) is a small passerine
bird currently placed in the cuckoo-shrike
family but possibly closer to the bushshrike
s of Africa. It is found in the forests of tropical southern Asia
from the Himalayas
and hills of the India
n subcontinent east to Indonesia
. Mainly insectivorous it is found hunting in the mid-canopy of forests, often joining mixed-species foraging flocks. They perch upright and have a distinctive pattern of black and white, males being more shiny black than the females. In some populations the colour of the back is brownish while others have a dark wash on the underside.
insects. The nostril is hidden by hairs and upper mandible of the beak is has a curved tip. Males are velvety black while females tend to be greyish brown but the pattern varies across the geographic populations. Both males and females of the Himalayan H. p. capitalis have a brown back but the males have a black head. The Sri Lankan population leggei lacks sexual dimorphism in plumage. H. p. intermedius has only the females with a brownish back. The tail is black but the outer tail feathers are white while the non-central tail feathers are tipped with white.
The call is a rapid and high tsit-it-it-it or a whriri-whirriri-whirriri and sometimes a sharp chip. Male-female pairs of the subspecies leggei of Sri Lanka have been reported to duet with precision.
Young birds are said to have a broken pattern of white and grey giving the appearance of lichens.
The exact systematic family position is unclear but the genus Hemipus has been found to be closely related to the genus Tephrodornis and show affinities to the Malaconotidae of Africa.
Subspecies leggei of Sri Lanka (southern Western Ghats populations included in older works) has the sexes indistinguishable. It is found in the hill forests of Sri Lanka.
Subspecies intermedius is found in Southeast Asia in Sumatra, Borneo, and parts of the Malay Peninsula. The brownish grey wash on the breast of females is darker, contrasting with the white of the abdomens. The back is darker brown than in other subspecies. The males also have darker breasts.
Other subspecies that have been described such as Walter Koelz
's pileatus (described from the Lushai Hills) and insulae (from Sri Lanka) are not considered valid.
s, Velvet-fronted Nuthatch
and white-eye
s in feeding flocks. They move through the forest and rarely stick to a particular location.
The nesting season in Sri Lanka is mainly from February to August, March to May in India. The nest is a neat cup with rim held stiff by cobwebs binding it and the inside is lined with fine grass and fibre. Lichens cover the surface of the nest cup which is placed on the horizontal surface of a dry branch, often close to the tip of a dead branch or on a leafless tree making it appear like a knot in the wood. The usual clutch is 2 or 3 eggs which are pale greenish white and blotched with black and grey. The bird sitting at the nest appears as if it is casually perched. Both males and females incubate. The chicks at nest stay still with eyes closed and face the center of the nest while holding their bills high giving the appearance of a broken branch.
They have been said to be sensitive to forest degradation but some studies note that they are less sensitive and capable of persisting even in considerably disturbed forests.
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
bird currently placed in the cuckoo-shrike
Cuckoo-shrike
The cuckooshrikes and allies in the Campephagidae family are small to medium-sized passerine bird species found in the subtropical and tropical Africa, Asia and Australasia...
family but possibly closer to the bushshrike
Bushshrike
The bushshrikes are smallish passerine bird species. They were formerly classed with the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, but are now considered sufficiently distinctive to be separated from that group as the family Malaconotidae....
s of Africa. It is found in the forests of tropical southern Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
from the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
and hills of the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n subcontinent east to Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. Mainly insectivorous it is found hunting in the mid-canopy of forests, often joining mixed-species foraging flocks. They perch upright and have a distinctive pattern of black and white, males being more shiny black than the females. In some populations the colour of the back is brownish while others have a dark wash on the underside.
Description
The Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike is black capped with black wings that contrast with the white of the body. A white slash across the wing and a white rump stand out in contrast. They sit upright on branches, flying around to gleanGleaning (birds)
Gleaning is a term for a feeding strategy by birds in which they catch invertebrate prey, mainly arthropods, by plucking them from foliage or the ground, from crevices such as rock faces and under the eaves of houses, or even, as in the case of ticks and lice, from living animals. This behavior is...
insects. The nostril is hidden by hairs and upper mandible of the beak is has a curved tip. Males are velvety black while females tend to be greyish brown but the pattern varies across the geographic populations. Both males and females of the Himalayan H. p. capitalis have a brown back but the males have a black head. The Sri Lankan population leggei lacks sexual dimorphism in plumage. H. p. intermedius has only the females with a brownish back. The tail is black but the outer tail feathers are white while the non-central tail feathers are tipped with white.
The call is a rapid and high tsit-it-it-it or a whriri-whirriri-whirriri and sometimes a sharp chip. Male-female pairs of the subspecies leggei of Sri Lanka have been reported to duet with precision.
Young birds are said to have a broken pattern of white and grey giving the appearance of lichens.
The exact systematic family position is unclear but the genus Hemipus has been found to be closely related to the genus Tephrodornis and show affinities to the Malaconotidae of Africa.
Distribution
The nominate race is found mainly in the Western Ghats of India but becoming very rare towards the Surat Dangs. They are also found in some parts of central and eastern India, extending into Bangladesh. The subspecies capitalis is found along the Himalayas from Simla, east to Manipur and Chittagong in India and extending into northern Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.Subspecies leggei of Sri Lanka (southern Western Ghats populations included in older works) has the sexes indistinguishable. It is found in the hill forests of Sri Lanka.
Subspecies intermedius is found in Southeast Asia in Sumatra, Borneo, and parts of the Malay Peninsula. The brownish grey wash on the breast of females is darker, contrasting with the white of the abdomens. The back is darker brown than in other subspecies. The males also have darker breasts.
Other subspecies that have been described such as Walter Koelz
Walter Norman Koelz
Walter Norman Koelz was an American zoologist and museum collector.Walter Koelz's parents were immigrants from the Black Forest region of Germany, and his father was a village blacksmith in Waterloo. Walter Koelz studied zoology and received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University...
's pileatus (described from the Lushai Hills) and insulae (from Sri Lanka) are not considered valid.
Behaviour and ecology
This bird catches insects by gleaning foliage and making aerial sallies for flushed insects. It will associate with other small birds such as babblerBabbler
Babbler may refer to:* Old World babbler, a large family of mostly Old World passerine birds* Australo-Papuan babbler, passerine birds endemic to Australia-New Guinea* The Babbler, the journal of BirdLife International in Indochina...
s, Velvet-fronted Nuthatch
Velvet-fronted Nuthatch
The Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, Sitta frontalis, is a small passerine bird found in southern Asia from Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka east to south China and Indonesia...
and white-eye
White-eye
White-eye can refer to:*White-eye , a large family of birds.*White-eye , a species of fish.*White-eye mutation, a mutation in Drosophila melanogaster linked to the X chromosome, found by reciprocal cross breeding experiments in 1906.*A lioness member of the Marsh Pride of lions that have featured...
s in feeding flocks. They move through the forest and rarely stick to a particular location.
The nesting season in Sri Lanka is mainly from February to August, March to May in India. The nest is a neat cup with rim held stiff by cobwebs binding it and the inside is lined with fine grass and fibre. Lichens cover the surface of the nest cup which is placed on the horizontal surface of a dry branch, often close to the tip of a dead branch or on a leafless tree making it appear like a knot in the wood. The usual clutch is 2 or 3 eggs which are pale greenish white and blotched with black and grey. The bird sitting at the nest appears as if it is casually perched. Both males and females incubate. The chicks at nest stay still with eyes closed and face the center of the nest while holding their bills high giving the appearance of a broken branch.
They have been said to be sensitive to forest degradation but some studies note that they are less sensitive and capable of persisting even in considerably disturbed forests.