Indian Robin
| Indian Robin | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Male of race cambaiensis  Female of race cambaiensis (Haryana) | ||||||||||||||
| Conservation status | ||||||||||||||
 Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1] | ||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Saxicoloides fulicatus (Linnaeus, 1766) | ||||||||||||||
 Light green cambaiensis, dark green fulicata and Sri Lankan leucopterus | ||||||||||||||
| Synonyms | ||||||||||||||
|
Motacilla fulicata[2][3] |
The Indian Robin (Saxicoloides fulicatus[note 1]) is a species of bird in the Muscicapidae family. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Description and distribution
This bird is found in open stony, grassy and scrub forest habitats. The tail is held upright and the vent is brown or dark chestnut. The males are glossy black with a white shoulder patch while females are smoky brown with grey underside. The nominate race is found in southern Peninsular India. Race leucopterus is found in Sri Lanka. Race cambaiensis of western India and erythrura of eastern India have the males with brown backs. Race intermedius is found in central India and parts of the Deccan region. A race munda was named for a specimen from Punjab but now considered synonymous with cambaiensis.[5] Older classifications include a race ptymatura for the population in southern India with the typical form being considered as being from Sri Lanka.[6] The species is often found close to human habitation.[7]
Local names recorded by Jerdon include Nalanchi (Telugu), Wannatikuruvi (Tamil, Washerman bird), Kalchuri (Hindi).[8]
The species was introduced into the New York region in the USA.[9][10]
Ecology
Population densities of 193-240 individuals per square km have been estimated in the Pondicherry University campus. The ratio of males to females was about 1.5:1. Territory size for males is estimated at about 6650 sq.m.[11] Males can be aggressive to others during the breeding season and will even attack reflections.[12] Human activities such as felling and firewood removal appears to benefit them.[13]
Food
They feed mostly on insects but are known to take frogs and lizards.[14] Individuals may forage late in the evening to capture insects attracted to lights.[15]
Breeding
Nests are built between rocks, in holes in walls or in a tree hollow.[16] It has been noted that many nests have pieces of snake sloughs.[17][6] The eggs are of regular oval form, but many are elongated and a few pointed. They have a fair amount of gloss. The ground-colour is white, often tinged with faint green or pink, and this is rather closely spotted, speckled, streaked, and mottled, with rich reddish or umber-brown and brownish yellow, with some underlying lavender. The markings are denser at the larger end of the egg, where they form an irregular cap. Some eggs are blotched with dark reddish brown at the large end. Eggs measure from .76 to .84 in length, and from .55 to .62 in breadth.[18] There is anecdotal evidence of them laying their eggs in the nests of Turdoides babblers.[19]
The breeding season is December to September but varies according to region. Peak breeding in northern India is in June. Southern India June-July.[18] In Sri Lanka it breeds in March to June and August to September.[7] Cyclic changes in melanin pigmentation of the testes associated with breeding have been noted.[20] Four to six eggs[21] are laid with only the female incubating.[22] Both males and females feed the young.[23] Nestlings are known to be preyed on by the Rufous Treepie.[24]
Parasites
Several parasites including a cestode have been identified in this species.[25][26]
Notes
- Rasmussen & Anderton emend the species epithet from fulicata to fulicatus since Saxicola is masculine and the -oides ending is always masculine according to ICZN Code 30.1.4.4. ICZN Code. See also David, Normand and Michel Gosselin (2002) The grammatical gender of avian genera. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 122(4):257-282.
References
- BirdLife International 2004. Saxicoloides fulicatus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. ed on 27 July 2007.
- Linnaeus (1766). Systema Naturae i:336 (Ceylon).
- Baker, E C Stuart (1921). "A hand-list of genera and species of birds of the Indian Empire". Jour. Bom. Nat. Hist. Soc. 27 (1): 87. http://www.archive.org/details/handlistofgenera00bake.
- George Robert Gray (1855). Catalogue of the Genera and Subgenera of Birds Contained in the British Museum. British Museum Natural History. pp. 36.
- Van Tyne, J. & W. Koelz (1936). "Seven new birds from the Punjab". Occ. Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan 334: 5.
- a b Hugh Whistler (1941). Popular Handbook of Indian Birds 3rd ed. Gurney and Jackson. pp. 106. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=nRlcWg-Kto4C.
- a b Rasmussen PC & JC Anderton (2005) Birds of South Asia:The Ripley Guide. Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions.
- Jerdon, T. C. (1863). The Birds of India. Volume 2 (part 1). Military Orphan Press, Calcutta. pp. 121. http://www.archive.org/details/birdsofindiabein21jerd.
- USFWS (2005-03-15) (PDF), Notices - Federal Register - March 15 2005 Vol. 70, No. 49, US Fish and Wildlife Service
- Bull, J. (1974). Birds of New York state. American Museum of Natural History, New York. 655 pp.
- Rajasekhar,B (1993). Use of line transects to estimate Indian Robin (Saxicoloides fulicata) population at Pondicherry University Campus. In: Bird Conservation: Strategies for the Nineties and Beyond. (Eds: Verghese,A; Sridhar,S; Chakravarthy,AK) Ornithological Society of India, Bangalore. pp. 191. .
- Wikramanayake,EB (1952). "Blackbacked Robin attacking car". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 50 (3): 656.
- Raman Kumar and Ghazala Shahabuddin (2006). "Consequences of Rural Biomass Extraction for Bird Communities in an Indian Tropical Dry Forest and the Role of Vegetation Structure" (PDF). Conservation and Society 4 (4): 562–591. http://www.conservationandsociety.org/cs_4_4_4-562.pdf.
- Sivasubramanian,C (1991). "Frog and lizard in the dietary of the Indian Robin Saxicoloides fulicata (Linn.)". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 88 (3): 458.
- Bharos, A. M. K. (1997). "Indian Robin Saxicola fulicata foraging in the light of fluorescent lamps.". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 94: 571.
- Shanbhag,AB; Gramopadhye,A (1996). "Peculiar nesting site and some observations on the breeding behaviour of Indian Robin Saxicoloides fulicata Linn.". Newsl. For Birdwatchers 36 (1): 3–5.
- Strecker, John K (1926). "On the use, by birds, of snakes' sloughs as nesting material" (PDF). The Auk 43 (4): 501–507. http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v043n04/p0501-p0507.pdf.
- a b Oates, E W (1905) Catalogue of the collection of birds' eggs in the British Museum. Vol. 4:151-153
- Field,F (1902). "Robin laying in babbler's nest". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 14 (3): 610–611.
- Agrawal SC, Bansal G. (1983). "Instance of melanosis in the gonads of male Indian Robin, Saxicoloides fulicata (Lin).". Poult Sci. 62 (2): 385–388.
- Oates, E. W. 1890. Fauna of British India Vol 2. Taylor and Francis London. pp. 115. http://www.archive.org/details/birdsindia02oaterich.
- Ali, S (1997). The Book of Indian Birds. 12th ed.. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195637313. OCLC 214935260.
- George,JC (1961). "Parental cooperation in the feeding of nestlings in the Indian Robin". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 58 (1): 267–268.
- Begbie, A (1905). "Nest of the Brown-backed Indian Robin Thamnobia cambaiensis". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 16 (3): 513.
- Shinde GB, Gharge MD, Gavhane AB, Jadhav BV (1990). "A new avian cestode from Saxicoloides fulicata at Aurangabad (M.S.) India". Rivista di Parassitologia 51 (3): 255–257.
- Harry Hoogstraal and Harold Trapido (1963). "Haemaphysalis kutchensis sp. n., a Common Larval and Nymphal Parasite of Birds in Northwestern India (Ixodoidea, Ixodidae)". The Journal of Parasitology 49 (3): 489–497. doi:.
External links
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; from the article "Indian Robin". Image Credit.
