Pied Bushchat
Encyclopedia
The Pied Bushchat is a small passerine
bird
found ranging from West and Central Asia to South and Southeast Asia. About sixteen subspecies are recognized through its wide range with many island forms. It is a familiar bird of countryside and open scrub or grassland where it is found perched at the top of short thorn trees or other shrubs, looking out for insect prey. They pick up insects mainly from the ground, and were, like other chat
s, placed in the thrush
family Turdidae, but are now considered as Old World flycatcher
s.
They nest in cavities in stone walls or in holes in an embankment, lining the nest with grass and animal hair. The males are black with white shoulder and vent patches whose extent varies among populations. Females are predominantly brownish while juveniles are speckled.
-_female_at_hodal_i_img_5887.jpg)
The Pied Bushchat is slightly smaller than the Siberian Stonechat
, Saxicola maurus, although it has a similar dumpy structure and upright stance. The male is black except for a white rump, wing patch and lower belly. The iris is dark brown, the bill and legs black. The female is drab brown and slightly streaked. Juveniles have a scaly appearance on the underside but dark above like the females.
A number of geographic populations have been given subspecies status:
Some of these isolated populations are found on islands and they include:
This species is closely related to the European
-African Stonechat
complex.
S. c. fruticola from Indonesia (Moyo Island population appeared to be well differentiated from specimens from Lembata Island with a divergence estimated to about 360,000 years ago.), S. c. pyrrhonota from West Timor (Indonesia).
Local names include Kala pidda in Hindi Shyama in Gujarati Kavda gapidda in Marathi Kallu kuruvi in Tamil, Kampa nalanchi in Telugu. The Fore people of New Guinea called it pobogile. They were once popular in Bengal as cage birds. They are still found in the local bird trade of some parts of Southeast Asia.
_i_img_8856.jpg)
The Pied Bushchat is a resident breeder in tropical southern Asia
from the Greater Middle East
through Pakistan
, India
and Bangladesh
eastwards to Indonesia
. They colonized Papua New Guinea
around 1950. It is found in open habitats including scrub, grassland and cultivation.
Some populations are partially migratory
. A ringed individual of subspecies rossorum has been recovered from Israel. The populations in India also appear to show seasonal movements but the patterns are unclear. Subspecies bicolor is found in peninsular India in winter. In Karwar on the western coast, it is said to appear in October and stay till May but not seen during the rainy season. Said to be absent in the Baroda district of Gujarat from April to September. Claud Buchanan Ticehurst
noted that it was a summer visitor to Baluchistan leaving in October and further that the birds from Baluchistan were indistinguishable from rossorum of Turkestan.
and has been transcribed as we are tea for two with tea at higher note. The nest is built in a hole in a wall or similar site lined with grass and hair, and 2-5 eggs are laid. Paired males did not reduce their dawn singing behaviour when their mates where trapped and temporarily excluded from the territory. This study suggests that males use dawn chorus to mediate social relationships with neighbouring males to proclaim an established territory. The eggs are small and broadly oval with pale bluish-white or pinkish ground colour and speckles and blotches towards the broad end. They measure about 0.67 by 0.55 inches. Eggs are incubated chiefly by the female for 12 to 13 days.
Brood parasitism by the Common Cuckoo
(race bakeri) has been noted to be common in the Shan State
of Burma, with the cuckoo visiting the nest at dusk and removing an egg before quickly laying its own.
The female has dark brown upperparts and rufous underparts and rump. She has no white wing patches. Juveniles are similar to females. Males display during the breeding season by splaying the tail, fluttering and puffing up the white scapular feathers.
This species is insectivorous, and like other chats hunts from a prominent low perch. They have been noted to feed on Pyralid
moths and whitefly
.
Nematode parasites in the genus Acuaria have been noted. Adult birds have few predators although bats (Megaderma lyra
) and wintering Asio flammeus have been noted to prey on them.
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
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
found ranging from West and Central Asia to South and Southeast Asia. About sixteen subspecies are recognized through its wide range with many island forms. It is a familiar bird of countryside and open scrub or grassland where it is found perched at the top of short thorn trees or other shrubs, looking out for insect prey. They pick up insects mainly from the ground, and were, like other chat
Chat (bird)
Chats are a group of small Old World insectivorous birds formerly classed as members of the thrush family Turdidae, but now considered Old World flycatchers....
s, placed in the thrush
Thrush (bird)
The thrushes, family Turdidae, are a group of passerine birds that occur worldwide.-Characteristics:Thrushes are plump, soft-plumaged, small to medium-sized birds, inhabiting wooded areas, and often feed on the ground or eat small fruit. The smallest thrush may be the Forest Rock-thrush, at and...
family Turdidae, but are now considered as Old World flycatcher
Old World flycatcher
The Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae is a large family of small passerine birds mostly restricted to the Old World. These are mainly small arboreal insectivores, many of which, as the name implies, take their prey on the wing.-Characteristics:...
s.
They nest in cavities in stone walls or in holes in an embankment, lining the nest with grass and animal hair. The males are black with white shoulder and vent patches whose extent varies among populations. Females are predominantly brownish while juveniles are speckled.
Description
Siberian Stonechat
The Siberian Stonechat or Asian Stonechat is a recently-validated species of the Old World flycatcher family . Like the other thrush-like flycatchers, it was often placed in the Turdidae in the past...
, Saxicola maurus, although it has a similar dumpy structure and upright stance. The male is black except for a white rump, wing patch and lower belly. The iris is dark brown, the bill and legs black. The female is drab brown and slightly streaked. Juveniles have a scaly appearance on the underside but dark above like the females.
A number of geographic populations have been given subspecies status:
- nominate caprata (Linnaeus, 1766) is found in Luzon and Mindoro, in the Philippines.
- rossorum (HartertErnst HartertErnst Johann Otto Hartert was a German ornithologist. Hartert was born in Hamburg. He was employed by Lionel Walter Rothschild as ornithological curator of his private museum at Tring from 1892 to 1929....
, 1910) is found in NE Iran SC Kazakhstan S to Afghanistan and Baluchistan; migrant in SW Asia (vagrant in Arabia, Israel).(shows more white below than bicolor, described by Hartert, Jour. f. Orn. 1910:180 but not always recognized) - bicolor SykesWilliam Henry SykesColonel William Henry Sykes, FRS was an Indian Army officer, politician and ornithologist.Sykes was born near Bradford in Yorkshire, and joined the Bombay Army, a part of the armed forces of the Honourable East India Company, in 1804, returning to Britain in 1837...
, 1832 is found in SE Iran, Pakistan and N India; migrating to central India and possibly southern India. - burmanicus Stuart BakerE. C. Stuart BakerEdward Charles Stuart Baker CIE OBE FZS FLS was a British ornithologist and police officer.-Life and career:Baker was educated at Trinity College, Stratford-upon-Avon and in 1883 followed his father into the Indian Police Service. He spent most of his career in India in the Assam Police, rising to...
, 1922 is found in peninsular India E to Myanmar and S China (S Sichuan, Yunnan), S to Thailand and Indochina. This has the white on the abdomen restricted towards the vent. - nilgiriensis WhistlerHugh WhistlerHugh Whistler , F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. was an English ornithologist who worked in India. He wrote one of the first field guides to Indian birds and documented the distributions of in numerous notes in several journals apart from describing several new subspecies.-Life and career:Whistler was born in...
, 1940 is found in the Western GhatsWestern GhatsThe Western Ghats, Western Ghauts or the Sahyādri is a mountain range along the western side of India. It runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea. The Western Ghats block rainfall to the Deccan...
and the Nilgiri Hills. - atratus (Blyth, 1851) is restricted to Sri Lanka. This has a large bill.
Some of these isolated populations are found on islands and they include:
- randi Parkes, 1960 found in the central Philippines (Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor).
- anderseni SalomonsenFinn SalomonsenFinn Salomonsen was a Danish ornithologist. He is best known for his work on the birds of Greenland.His interest in Greenland began at the age of 16 when he made a trip with Lehn Schioler to the Upernavik District. He obtained a degree in zoology in 1932 and joined as a zoological assistant in the...
, 1953 found on Leyte and Mindanao, in the Philippines. - fruticola HorsfieldThomas HorsfieldThomas Horsfield M. D. was an American physician and naturalist.Horsfield was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He was the grandson of Timothy Horsfield, Sr., a colonel and justice of the peace in Bethlehem, and a friend mentioned in Benjamin...
, 1821 found in Java E to Flores and Alor. - francki RenschBernhard RenschBernhard Rensch was a German evolutionary biologist, and ornithologist who did field work in Indonesia and India. He is probably best known as one of the architects of the modern evolutionary synthesis, which he popularised in Germany...
, 1931 is found on the Sumba Islands - pyrrhonotus (Vieillot, 1818) found in the E Lesser Sundas (Wetar, Kisar, Timor, Savu, Roti).
- albonotatus (StresemannErwin StresemannErwin Stresemann was a German naturalist and ornithologist.Stresemann was one of the outstanding ornithologists of the 20th century...
, 1912) found in Sulawesi (except N peninsula) and Salayer I. - cognatus MayrErnst MayrErnst Walter Mayr was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, historian of science, and naturalist...
, 1944 on Babar Island. - belensis Rand, 1940 in WC New Guinea.
- aethiops (P. L. SclaterPhilip SclaterPhilip Lutley Sclater was an English lawyer and zoologist. In zoology, he was an expert ornithologist, and identified the main zoogeographic regions of the world...
, 1880) in N New Guinea and Bismarck Archipelago. - wahgiensis Mayr & Gilliard, 1951 in EC & E New Guinea.
This species is closely related to the European
European Stonechat
The European Stonechat is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a subspecies of the Common Stonechat. Long considered a member of the thrush family Turdidae, genetic evidence has placed it and its relatives in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.It is 11.5–13 cm long and...
-African Stonechat
African Stonechat
The African Stonechat is a species of the Old World flycatcher family , inhabiting sub-Saharan Africa and adjacent regions. Like the other chats, it was long assigned to the thrush family , to which the chats are convergent...
complex.
S. c. fruticola from Indonesia (Moyo Island population appeared to be well differentiated from specimens from Lembata Island with a divergence estimated to about 360,000 years ago.), S. c. pyrrhonota from West Timor (Indonesia).
Local names include Kala pidda in Hindi Shyama in Gujarati Kavda gapidda in Marathi Kallu kuruvi in Tamil, Kampa nalanchi in Telugu. The Fore people of New Guinea called it pobogile. They were once popular in Bengal as cage birds. They are still found in the local bird trade of some parts of Southeast Asia.
Distribution
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 Greater Middle East
Greater Middle East
The Greater Middle East is a political term coined by the Bush administration to group together together various countries, pertaining to the Muslim world, specifically Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Various Central Asian countries are sometimes also included. Some speakers may use the...
through Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, 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 Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
eastwards 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...
. They colonized Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
around 1950. It is found in open habitats including scrub, grassland and cultivation.
Some populations are partially migratory
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...
. A ringed individual of subspecies rossorum has been recovered from Israel. The populations in India also appear to show seasonal movements but the patterns are unclear. Subspecies bicolor is found in peninsular India in winter. In Karwar on the western coast, it is said to appear in October and stay till May but not seen during the rainy season. Said to be absent in the Baroda district of Gujarat from April to September. Claud Buchanan Ticehurst
Claud Buchanan Ticehurst
Claud Buchanan Ticehurst was a British ornithologist.Born at St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, Ticehurst was educated first at Tonbridge School and subsequently attended St John's College, Cambridge...
noted that it was a summer visitor to Baluchistan leaving in October and further that the birds from Baluchistan were indistinguishable from rossorum of Turkestan.
Behaviour and ecology
The breeding season is mainly February to August with a peak in March to June. Males sing from prominent perches. The whistling call is somewhat like that of an Indian RobinIndian Robin
The Indian Robin The Indian Robin The Indian Robin (Saxicoloides fulicatusRasmussen & Anderton emend the species epithet from fulicata to fulicatus since Saxicola is masculine and the -oides ending is always masculine according to ICZN Code 30.1.4.4....
and has been transcribed as we are tea for two with tea at higher note. The nest is built in a hole in a wall or similar site lined with grass and hair, and 2-5 eggs are laid. Paired males did not reduce their dawn singing behaviour when their mates where trapped and temporarily excluded from the territory. This study suggests that males use dawn chorus to mediate social relationships with neighbouring males to proclaim an established territory. The eggs are small and broadly oval with pale bluish-white or pinkish ground colour and speckles and blotches towards the broad end. They measure about 0.67 by 0.55 inches. Eggs are incubated chiefly by the female for 12 to 13 days.
Brood parasitism by the Common Cuckoo
Common Cuckoo
The Common Cuckoo is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, Cuculiformes, which includes the roadrunners, the anis and the coucals....
(race bakeri) has been noted to be common in the Shan State
Shan State
Shan State is a state of Burma . Shan State borders China to the north, Laos to the east, and Thailand to the south, and five administrative divisions of Burma in the west. Largest of the 14 administrative divisions by land area, Shan State covers 155,800 km², almost a quarter of the total...
of Burma, with the cuckoo visiting the nest at dusk and removing an egg before quickly laying its own.
The female has dark brown upperparts and rufous underparts and rump. She has no white wing patches. Juveniles are similar to females. Males display during the breeding season by splaying the tail, fluttering and puffing up the white scapular feathers.
This species is insectivorous, and like other chats hunts from a prominent low perch. They have been noted to feed on Pyralid
Pyralidae
The Pyralidae or snout moths are a family of Lepidoptera in the ditrysian superfamily Pyraloidea. In many classifications, the grass moths are included in the Pyralidae as a subfamily, making the combined group one of the largest families in the Lepidoptera...
moths and whitefly
Whitefly
The whiteflies, comprising only the family Aleyrodidae, are small hemipterans. More than 1550 species have been described. Whiteflies typically feed on the underside of plant leaves.-Agricultural threat:...
.
Nematode parasites in the genus Acuaria have been noted. Adult birds have few predators although bats (Megaderma lyra
Megaderma Lyra
The Greater False Vampire Bat is a carnivorous bat, just as the South American Spectral Bat. However, it lives in Asia, along with other bats of the genus Megaderma, which are also known as "false vampires".- Description :...
) and wintering Asio flammeus have been noted to prey on them.