>Coracina melaschistos (Black-winged Cuckooshrike)

Black-winged Cuckooshrike

Black-winged Cuckooshrike
on Banyan Ficus benghalensis at Jayanti in Buxa Tiger Reserve in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India.
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Campephagidae
Genus:	Coracina
Species:	C. melaschistos
Binomial name
Coracina melaschistos (Hodgson, 1836)

The Black-winged Cuckooshrike or Smaller Grey Cuckoo-Shrike (Coracina melaschistos) is a species of cuckooshrike found in South to Southeast Asia.

Distribution

It is distributed from Northeast Pakistan through the lower Himalayan region (Uttarakhand, Nepal, Arunachal Pradesh and into the hills of NE Myanmar continuing to China and Southeast Asia. It winters in the foothills, occasionally longer distances (e.g. Kerala).

Habitat: open forest, groves, singly or in pairs.

Description

Black-winged Cuckooshrike at Jayanti in Buxa Tiger Reserve in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India

Black-winged Cuckooshrike (female)

A medium sized, dark cuckoo-shrike with unbarred, grey underparts.

Male: dark grey above; contrasting black wings and tail. Wide white feather tips on underside of tail.

Female: Palers with faint barring on underside

Call: Loud twit twit to we, descending in scale.

Diet: mainly invertebrates.

Nests in tree.

Gallery

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  on Banyan Ficus benghalensis at Jayanti inBuxa Tiger Reserve inJalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India.
 
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  on Banyan Ficus benghalensis at Jayanti inBuxa Tiger Reserve in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India.