| White-bellied cuckooshrike | |
|---|---|
 | |
| In Far North Queensland, Australia | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Campephagidae |
| Genus: | Coracina |
| Species: | C. papuensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Coracina papuensis (Gmelin, JF, 1788) | |
The white-bellied cuckooshrike (Coracina papuensis) is a species of bird in the family Campephagidae. It is found in Australia, the Moluccas, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
The white-bellied cuckooshrike was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae . He placed it with the crows in the genus Corvus and coined the binomial name Corvus papuensis. [2] Gmelin based his description on "Le Choucari de la Nouvelle Guinée" that had been described in 1775 by the French polymath the Comte de Buffon and illustrated with a hand-coloured engraving by François-Nicolas Martinet. [3] [4] The type location was restricted to Manokwari in the Indonesian province of West Papua by Erwin Stresemann in 1913. [5] [6] The white-bellied cuckooshrike is now one of 22 species placed in the genus Coracina that was introduced in 1816 by French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. [7]
Thirteen subspecies are recognised. [7]
This species exhibits a short black mask extending from the beak to the eyes (lores) but not beyond with a fine white rear eye-ring. [8] [9] The head and upperparts including upper wings are pale blue-grey with tail feathers tending towards darker grey. Despite the name, the belly can be white to grey depending on region and subspecies. [8] [9] [10] The subspecies Coracina papuensis robusta can present with a dark morph that has extensive black plumage on the neck and chest that can be barred at the edges. [8] There is little variation between the sexes. Immature birds can have the underparts lightly barred and appear duller than adults with a less distinct black mask. [9] [10] This species can be mistaken for the black-faced cuckooshrike due to similar markings but is smaller with a more compact build. [9] An adult white-bellied cuckooshrike grows to between 22 and 29 cm and weighs 55–80 g. [10]
The white-bellied cuckooshrike has a characteristic call that is described as a peevish kissik kissik or quiseek. [8] It also produces a weak, squealing, slurred, repeating whee-eeyu or wee-year that has been likened to that of a parrot (Psittacidae). [10] It is often spotted flying due to its distinct undulating pattern of flight where the species gains altitude by flapping its wings then holding its wings stiffly downward to glide. [11]
The white-bellied cuckooshrike range includes parts of Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. [1] In Australia it has been found throughout tropical northern Australia and eastern Australia including the northern parts of Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and southeast South Australia. [9] [1] The white-bellied cuckooshrike is common throughout Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and less common in Indonesia. In Indonesia the white-bellied cuckooshrike is commonly found in the northern Moluccas and occasionally found in Eastern Wallacea. [10]
The white-bellied cuckooshrike thrives in many different habitats and vegetation types including, savanna, woodlands, Eucalyptus forests, riparian forest, rainforest, littoral forest, river redgum bushland, mangroves, open grasslands, coconut plantations, farmlands, and suburban gardens. [10] [11] [8] It prefers lower-lying and forested habitats mainly below 800 m asl. [10] [12] They are predominantly sedentary or locally nomadic; however, the subspecies C. p. robusta can be considered migratory. [8]
The white-bellied cuckooshrike breeds between August and March in Australia while in southern New Guinea (Port Moresby region) breeding occurs between March and June. [10] [8] Both adults construct the nest, usually on a horizontal fork from 7 to 10 m above the ground. [9] The nest consists of a shallow cup made from a combination of grass, fine twigs, bark, leaves and vine tendrils bound together with spider webs and decorated with lichen. [11] [10] The clutch of eggs ranges from 1 to 3 with colourings differing between regions. In Papua New Guinea eggs appear pale blue-green with dark markings. [10] In Australia eggs can exhibit a range of different colourings including pale olive-green to pale olive-brown, chestnut brown, and dull grey. [9] The eggs are incubated and cared for by both adults with the incubation period lasting 21 or 22 days and the fledgling period lasting approximately 22 days. [10]
They predominantly feed on larger insects like dragonflies ( Odonata ), cockroaches ( Blattodea ), mantids ( Mantodea ), grasshoppers ( Orthoptera ), bugs ( Hemiptera ), beetles ( Coleoptera ), stick-insects ( Phasmatidae ), lepidopteran larvae, and ants and wasps ( Hymenoptera ). [10] Spiders ( Araneae ), fruit and seeds also feature in their diet. They typically employ gleaning to forage for insects among tree foliage singly, in twos or small groups. [10] [11] This involves moving though trees from canopy to mid-level taking insects from tree foliage. They also occasionally employ sallying techniques or forage on the ground. [10]
The white-bellied cuckooshrike has an extremely large range appearing throughout Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and the Moluccas. [10] Its population does not approach “thresholds for vulnerable status under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation)” and as the population trend appears to be increasing, it “does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations)”. [1] Due to these reasons the white-bellied cuckooshrike is classified as Least Concern. [1]
The Pacific swallow is a small passerine bird in the swallow family. It breeds in tropical southern Asia and the islands of the south Pacific. It is resident apart from some local seasonal movements. This bird is associated with coasts, but is increasingly spreading to forested uplands. The hill swallow and the welcome swallow were formerly considered conspecific.
The black-faced cuckooshrike is a common omnivorous passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea. It has a protected status in Australia, under the National Parks and Wildlife Act, 1974.
The large cuckooshrike is a species of cuckooshrike found in the Indian Subcontinent and depending on the taxonomic treatment used, Southeast Asia. The species has had a long and varied taxonomic treatment, being closely related to forms across Southeast Asia, with some authors using the name Indian cuckooshrike. The species and subspecies classifications vary widely across sources and are yet to be resolved unambiguously.
Blyth's hornbill, also known as the Papuan hornbill, is a large hornbill inhabiting the forest canopy in Wallacea and Melanesia. Its local name in Tok Pisin is kokomo.
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The glossy swiftlet is a species of swift in the family Apodidae. It is found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and eastwards to New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands.
The short-tailed nighthawk is a species of nightjar in the family Caprimulgidae. It is found in Mexico, in every Central American country except El Salvador, in Trinidad and Tobago, and in every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay.
The shining bronze cuckoo is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae, found in Australia, Indonesia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. It was previously also known as Chalcites lucidus.
The white-shouldered starling is a species of bird in the starling family Sturnidae. It breeds in southern China and northern Vietnam; it winters in Southeast Asia.
The little kingfisher is a species of kingfisher in the subfamily Alcedininae.
Coracina is a large genus of birds in the cuckooshrike family Campephagidae.
The south Melanesian cuckooshrike is an uncommon species of bird in the cuckooshrike family. It is found in New Caledonia, Bougainville Island, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. The species is a large (32–37 cm) cuckoo-shrike with a long square tail and all over dark grey plumage. The eye of adults is yellow, whereas that of the juvenile is dark. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.
The barred cuckooshrike, also called the yellow-eyed cuckooshrike, is a species of bird in the family Campephagidae. It is found in eastern Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands.
The ground cuckoo-shrike is an uncommon bird species endemic to Australia, occurring mainly in open woodland and arid grasslands throughout inland Australia, but also occasionally in areas on the east coast.
The bar-bellied cuckooshrike is a species of bird in the family Campephagidae. It is found in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and its natural habitats include mangrove forest, dry forest, swamp forest, and secondary forest. The plumage varies among the subspecies, with different amounts of barring on the underparts. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the species as one of least-concern.
The common cicadabird, also known as the slender-billed cicadabird, is a species of bird in the family Campephagidae. It is found in Australia, Indonesia, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. Its natural habitats are temperate forest and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest. The species is placed in the reinstated genus Edolisoma by most authors. The common cicadabird was described as a "great speciator" by Mayr & Diamond (2001); and Pedersen et al. (2018) described how this species rapidly colonized and diversified across the Indo-Pacific island region and Australia in the Pleistocene.
The hooded butcherbird is a species of passerine bird in the family Artamidae. It is found in New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest.
Lalage is a genus of passerine birds belonging to the cuckooshrike family Campephagidae, many of which are commonly known as trillers. There are about 18 species which occur in southern Asia and Australasia with a number of species on Pacific islands. They feed mainly on insects and fruit. They build a neat cup-shaped nest high in a tree.
Edolisoma is a genus of birds in the cuckooshrike family Campephagidae that are native to the Central Indo-Pacific region, Australia and New Guinea.
