Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike

Taxobox
name = Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike


image_caption = on Banyan "Ficus benghalensis" at Jayanti in Buxa Tiger Reserve in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India.
status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1
status_ref = [IUCN2006|assessors=BirdLife International|year=2004|id=51289|title=Coracina melaschistos|downloaded=12 May 2006 Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern]
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Passeriformes
familia = Campephagidae
genus = "Coracina"
species = "C. melaschistos"
binomial = "Coracina melaschistos"
binomial_authority = (Hodgson, 1836)

The Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike 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 (Uttaranchal, 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

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 undersidecite book
title = Photographic guide to birds of India
last = Grewal
first = Bikram
authorlink = Bikram Grewal
coauthors = Bill Harvey and Otto Pfister
publisher = Periplus editions / Princeton University Press
address = Hong Kong
year = 2002 p. 257.]

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

Diet: mainly invertebrates.

Nests in tree.

References

Gallery