Blue-faced malkoha
| Blue-faced malkoha | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Cuculiformes |
| Family: | Cuculidae |
| Genus: | Phaenicophaeus |
| Species: | P. viridirostris
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| Binomial name | |
| Phaenicophaeus viridirostris (Jerdon, 1840)
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The blue-faced malkoha or small green-billed malkoha (Phaenicophaeus viridirostris) is a non-parasitic cuckoo found in the scrub and deciduous forests of peninsular India and Sri Lanka. It is a waxy dark blue grey plumage on its upperparts and has a long and graduated white-tipped tail. The bill is green and naked patch of blue skin around the eye. The sexes are alike. and southern India. The blue-faced malkoha is a bird of open forests and scrub jungle.
Description
A largish species at 39 cm, its back and head are dark grey with a oily green or blue gloss, and the dark tail has graduated feathers tipped with white. The underside is rufous to grey. The feathers of the chin and throat are branched (unlike in Phaeniciphaeus tristis) with the branched portion being slightly yellowish giving the throat a streaked appearance. There is a large blue patch around the eye, with a white fringed red iris, and the bill is apple green. The sexes are indistinguishable by external appearance. Birds from Sri Lanka have a broader white tip to the tail feathers.[2][3]
They nest within a thorny bush building a thick platform of twigs, lined with green leaves and lay a clutch of two chalky white eggs.[2][4]
The blue-faced malkoha takes a variety of insects, caterpillars and small vertebrates. It occasionally eats berries. It usually forages in the undergrowth.[2]
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Taxonomy
The species was described in 1840 by T.C. Jerdon based on a specimen that he collected at the base of Coonoor ghats. He placed it in the genus Xanclostomus but saw affinities to Phaenicophaeus.[5] A year earlier T.C. Eyton described a species from Malaya that he called Phaenicophaeus viridirostris[6] but that referred to the already described Phaenicophaeus chlorophaeus.[7] The species is included in the genus Phaenicophaeus although it was formerly placed in Rhopodytes. The genus belongs to the subfamily Phaenicophaeinae.
Distribution
The blue-faced malkoha is found in peninsular India south of Baroda and Cuttack in a range of habitats from semi-evergreen, dry deciduous and open scrub forest.[2] In Sri Lanka it is restricted to the plains.
References
- ^ Template:IUCN
- ^ a b c d Ali, Salim; Ripley, S. Dillon (1981). Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan. Volume 3. Stone Curlews to Owls (2 ed.). Delhi: Oxford University Press. pp. 233–234.
- ^ Blanford, W.T. (1895). The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Birds. Volume III. London: Taylor and Francis. pp. 231–232.
- ^ Baker, E.C. Stuart (1927). The Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma. Birds. Volume 4 (2 ed.). London: Taylor and Francis. pp. 177–178.
- ^ Jerdon, T.C. (1840). "Catalogue of the Birds of the Peninsula of India". Madras Journal of Literature and Science. 11: 207-239.
- ^ Eyton, T.C. (1839). "[Catalogue of a Collection of Birds from Malaya, with descriptions of the new species]": 100–107.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Cabanis, Jean; Heine, Ferdinand (1862-3). Museum Heineanum : Verzeichniss der ornithologischen Sammlung des Oberamtmann Ferdinand Heine. Volume 4. Part 1. pp. 58–59.
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