The Schlegel's Asity (Philepitta schlegeli)

The Schlegel's Asity (Philepitta schlegeli) Male, Plumage can found in Madagascar. This fantastic bird is a species of bird belongs to Philepittidae family. It is endemic to Madagascar, and its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threatened by habitat loss. The Schlegel’s Asity is 12·5 to 14 cm, small bird, rotund, short-tailed, with short bill and legs. Adult male breeding has head mostly black, brilliant apple-green wattle. The species is perhaps polygynous, with dispersed male leks. Its nest is globular in shape and suspended from a low branch of an understory tree. It is constructed from moss, bark and leaf strips, held together with spiders' webs. Laying dates are probably at least between October and December. The male is very distinctive, but the female can be distinguished from the Velvet Asity by the pale fleshy eye-ring, and the yellow-tinged underparts. Thus, hints Often feeds from flowering trees in the canopy of western deciduous forest, or on fruits in the understory.

This species has elaborate secondary sexual characters. Adult breeding males of the Schlegel’s Asity have supraorbital caruncles, which are feather less, fleshy excrescences of the dermis above the eye. These caruncles are pearly light green below and in front of the eyes, blue above the eyes, and turquoise behind the eyes. The voice of Male bird song is a quiet but penetrating whistle of c. 7–9 notes, rising and then falling. The bird likes largely frugivorous, especially in rainy season; fruits include those of Cabucala (Apocynaceae). The population size of this species has not been quantified, but it is described as rather scarce. All forest habitats in Madagascar are under intense human pressure. Because dry forests within this species’ range are threatened by burning and cattle-grazing as well as by the extraction of wood for fuel and construction.

The Andean Cock-of-the-Rock

The amazingly bizarre Andean Cock-of-the-rock is maybe the most widely recognized bird of the cloud forests of the Andes Mountains. The Andean cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruvianus), also known as tunki (Quechua), is a large passerine bird of the cotinga family native to Andean cloud forests in South America can be found in cloud forests in the Andes Mountains in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia mostly in ravines and forested streams in montane areas at 500 to 2,400 m elevation. It is national bird of Peru, is readily identified by its fan-shaped crest and brilliant orange plumage, neck, breast, and shoulders and has a black body, gray wings, and a large disk-shaped crest of feathers that extends over its bill. The female is a brownish-orange over her whole body and has a smaller crest and both of evident to a lesser degree even in the duller female.

It is a medium-sized perching bird around 12 inches in length and weighing around 265 grams. The male bird spend much of their time displaying at leks, (A lek is an area where animals, usually birds, gather to perform courtship displays) where they jump up and down on particular branches and utter low, guttural croaks. At the lek, males have been observed to break up into pairs, performing “confrontation displays”. This consists of facing each other while bowing, jumping, and flapping their wings, sometimes even snapping their bills, and at the same time giving off various squawking and grunting calls. When the female approaches, it becomes even more intense.  The bird name is derived from their preference for rocks and ledges as substrates for their mud cup nests. Often difficult to detect away from leks, birds can sometimes be found feeding at fruiting trees eats a diet of fruit and berries, supplemented by insects, amphibians, reptiles, and smaller mice.

The Andean cock-of-the-rock is found in humid, rocky forested areas and is often found in ravines near water or by forest streams. It is usually found at elevations of 1,500-8,900 feet. A cloud forest is a tropical or subtropical forest that is usually covered by clouds or fog at the canopy level. The bird is one of many birds species to exhibit marked sexual dimorphism. The female builds a nest of mud plastered to cave entrances or rocky outcrops in forest ravines.  She normally lays 2 eggs and incubates them for around 28 days. She cares for the chicks by herself. The male birds appear to take three years to attain the adult plumage; however few birds start to show up at displaying leks during this stage of their lives as subordinate males. Once the orange feathers begin to appear, it seems the birds continue a progressive molt until the time they reach the adult plumage by the third year of life. Andean cocks-of-the-rock face slightly greater predators than smaller songbirds. The Predators are attracted to leks by the conspicuous behavior of the displaying males. The animals prey on adult cocks-of-the-rock including hawk-eagles, hawks, forest-falcons, jaguar, mountain lion, ocelot and the boa constrictor.

It is generally shy and inconspicuous, often seen only briefly after being flushed out or while swiftly flying down a valley. Andean cock-of-the-rock males gather in groups in a lek in the forest. The males try to attract females with a call that sounds bob up and down, bow, and hop around to display their bright plumage. The male bird is habitually mate with more than one female. This species has a very large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion; hence for these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern. The Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock is alike species but has a more orange plumage and lacks the extent of black feathers on its wings. Source: Charismatic Planet

The Great Barbet “Psilopogon Virens”

The great barbet “Psilopogon virens” is an Asian barbet, are a group of near passerine birds with a worldwide tropical distribution. The bird gets their name from the bristles which fringe their heavy bills. This is the largest barbet at 31–33 cm in length and a weight of 192–295 g. It is a plump bird, with a short neck, large head and short tail. The adult has a blue head, large yellow bill, brown back and breast, green-streaked yellow belly and red vent. The rest of the plumage is green. Both sexes and immature birds are similar. The great barbet is a resident breeder in the lower-to-middle altitudes of the Himalayas, ranging across eastern Pakistan northern India, Nepal and Bhutan, Bangladesh and some parts of Southeast Asia, as far away as Laos. The bird nesting season is from April to July, typically builds nests in tree holes. The average clutch consists of 2 - 4 eggs (occasionally 5) that often show very faint, depressed lines running longitudinally down the eggs. The incubation period (to hatching) is about 13 - 15 days. The male and female birds share the parental duties.

The Great Barbets mostly feed on fruits, flowers, buds and seeds, but will also eat a wide range of insects, including moths, mantis, ants, cicadas, dragonflies, crickets, locusts and beetles. They usually forage in the higher branches of tall trees. The male's territorial call is a very loud kay-oh. The alarm is a harsh keeab, and another call is a repetitive piou-piou-piou-piou. They are typically found in broadleaf evergreen forests between about 2,000 - 8,500 feet. They are usually seen alone or in pairs, except after having raised young in which case fledglings may accompany them. Larger numbers of them may occur at favored fruit trees. This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion. The population trend appears to be stable, and hence the species does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion, and species is evaluated as Least Concern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Flame Bowerbird (Sericulus aureus)

The flame bowerbird is a rainforest bird distributed in and endemic to rainforests of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the most brilliantly colored bowerbirds. This bird is the first bowerbird described by naturalists, due to male's exquisitely colored plumage. The Flame Bowerbirds named after the elaborate structures, or bowers, built and decorated with colorful objects by the males, bowerbirds have one of the most exclusive courtship rituals in the animal kingdom.

However, it was earlier thought to be a bird of paradise. Indeed, the male flame bowerbird also has a courtship display along with his bower, and he twists his tails and his wings to the side, and then shakes his head rapidly. The Flame Bowerbird is a medium sized bird, measure upto 25 cm long, with flame orange and golden yellow plumage with elongated neck plumes and yellow-tipped black tail. It builds an "avenue-type" bower with two side walls of sticks.

However, the female bird is an olive brown bird with yellow or golden below. The courtship behavior of the flame bowerbird was filmed by Japanese photographer Tadashi Shimada in Dancers on Fire, a documentary that aired on the Smithsonian Channel. Although the male appeared to court females twice, no successful mating was filmed as the female moved away when the male mounted. However, Shimada filmed other strange behavior, such as a male courting a juvenile male and numerous juvenile males as well as an adult male appearing to share one bower, only to be destroyed by another juvenile male. The bird habitats is lowland and montane rainforest and adjacent second growth, occurs from lowlands up to 1400m, aureus mainly at 850 - 1400m.

The Flame Bowrbirds diet is little known certainly includes fruits and insects. Forages singly or in small groups, also with other fruit-eating species like Vogelkop Bowerbird. The display season starts August to November, when male builds and attends a bower to attract females. They build a nest alone and also breed alone.The bower is a so-called avenue bower built with sticks. It's about 23cm long, 16cm wide and 19cm high. It's decorated with purple, blue and brown fruits, flowers, snail-shells and leaves. The male performs a dance to attract the female to the bower.

There’re two different subspecies, sometimes considered full species: Sericulus aureus ardens (flame bowerbird), from south-western New Guinea, with orange-faced male -Sericulus aureus aureus (masked bowerbird), the nominate form of north-western New Guinea, with black-faced and black-throated male. The flame bowerbird is assessed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

 

 

 

 

 

White-Crested Laughingthrush

The eye-catching White crested Laughingthrush ((Garrulax leucolophus) is a member of the Leiothrichidae family. This bird is mostly found in forest and scrub from the Himalayan foothills to Indochina, broadleaf evergreen forest and mixed deciduous forest, disturbed, secondary and regenerating forest. However, the White-crested Laughingthrush is not indigenous to Singapore. A charismatic “cute’-looking bird” usually moving in flocks ranging from pairs to noisy gangs of eight, has mostly chestnut-brown upperparts, a white head and breast with a protuberant white crest that sometimes appears a dirty grey due to the accumulation of dust, as well as a broad black stripe running from the lores across the eye to the ear coverts.

The bird is formerly included the Sumatran laughingthrush as a subspecies, but nothing like that species the plumage of the white-crested laughingthrush is rufescent-brown and white, and the black mask is relatively broad. In Thailand it is an introduced as a cage bird and somehow escaped and from a sustainable population. Moreover, it has become well established since 1995, and its population has increased, can be commonly encountered in many locations. This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion, hence not under threat and least concern. However, the population is suspected to be in decline owing to ongoing habitat destruction and fragmentation.

Somewhere between March to August White-crested Laughing Thrushes form close bonds during the breeding season. The bird habitually builds a wide, shallow nest at least six feet off the ground, normally constructed of bamboo leaves. The birds lays 3 to 5 eggs incubate for a short period of 15 days, letting White-crested Laughing Thrushes to generally produce at least two clutches of young each year. In order to be successful, the parents enlist support. The White-crested Laughing Thrushes rely on older offspring those hatched earlier in the season to support feed and defend the youngest members of the family.

White-crested Laughing Thrushes are noisy, social birds who sporadically burst into loud calls that sound just like laughter. White-crested Laughing Thrushes are an incredibly social species native to the teak and bamboo-covered foothills of the Himalayan Moutains.