The Jerdon's Leafbird is a species of leafbird

Leafbird

The leafbirds are a family of small passerine bird species found in India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. They are one of only three bird families that are entirely endemic to the Indomalayan ecozone. They were formerly grouped with the ioras and fairy-bluebirds in the family Irenidae...

 found in forest and woodland in 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...

 and Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

. Its name honours Thomas C. Jerdon

Thomas C. Jerdon

Thomas Caverhill Jerdon was a British physician, zoologist and botanist. He is best remembered for his pioneering works on the ornithology of India...

. It has traditionally been considered a subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 of the Blue-winged Leafbird

Blue-winged Leafbird

The Blue-winged Leafbird is a species of leafbird found in forest and second growth from far north-eastern India and throughout Southeast Asia as far east as Borneo and as far south as Java. It commonly includes Jerdon's Leafbird from the Indian Subcontinent, and the Bornean Leafbird The...

 (C. cochinchinensis), but differ in measurements and morphology

Morphology (biology)

In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....

, it lacking the blue flight feather

Flight feather

Flight feathers are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges while those on the tail are called rectrices . Their primary function is to aid in the generation of both thrust and lift, thereby...

s for which the Blue-winged Leafbird was named.

It builds its nest in a tree, and lays 2-3 eggs. This species eats insects, fruit and nectar.

The male is green-bodied with a yellow-tinged head, black face and throat. It has a blue moustachial line. The female differs in that it has a greener head and blue throat, and young birds are like the female but without the blue throat patch.

Like other leafbirds, the call of Jerdon's Leafbird consists of a rich mixture of imitations of the calls of various other species of birds.