The Sri Lanka blue magpie or Ceylon magpie (''Urocissa ornata'') is a brightly coloured member of the family
Corvidae
Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers. In colloquial English, they are known as the crow family or corvids. Currentl ...
, found exclusively in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
. This species is adapted to hunting in the dense canopy, where it is highly active and nimble. Its flight is rather weak, though, and is rarely used to cover great distances. In spite of the Sri Lanka blue magpie's ability to adapt to the presence of humans, it is classified as vulnerable to extinction due to the fragmentation and destruction of its habitat of dense
primary forest
An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featu ...
in the wet zone of southern Sri Lanka.
Description
The Sri Lanka blue magpie measures 42–47 cm in length,BirdLife International (2019) Species factsheet: ''Urocissa ornata''. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 13/10/2019 and is larger than a mynah, but smaller than a
crow
A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifical ...
,Henry GM. 1971. A guide to the birds of Ceylon. London (UK)/New York (NY): Oxford University Press. with a sturdy bill. Its plumage is bright blue, with a reddish-brown or chestnut head, neck, and wing. The blue tail is long and graduated, with a white tip. The bill, legs, feet, and featherless eye ring of this species are all vibrant red. Both the male and female of the species share this description. The juvenile of this species has a plumage similar to that of an adult, but overall duller, with a brown eye ring and a greyish hue to its blue feathers, especially on its underside. Moulting season for Sri Lanka blue magpies is from August to November.
Taxonomy
The Sri Lanka blue magpie is a member of the order
Passeriformes
A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...
, in the family Corvidae.Cook K. 1993. Sri Lanka Magpie (Urocissa ornata). In: Endangered Wildlife of the World. 5: 697-698. New York (NY): Marshall Cavendish Corporation.
This species belongs to '' Urocissa'', a genus of Southeast Asian magpies,Ericson PGP, Jansén A-L, Johansson US, Ekman J. 2005. Inter-generic relationships of the crows, jays, magpies and allied groups. (Aves: Corvidae) based on nucleotide sequence data. Journal of Avian Biology. 36(3): 222-234. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230307138_Molecular_analysis_of_the_phylogeny_of_11_genera_of_the_Corvidae of which there are 5 known species total. They share a recent common ancestor with another genus of Asian magpies,'' Cissa''. Both ''Urocissa'' and ''Cissa'' are genera of the Oriental region, where the diversity of corvid species originated. They share a distant
common ancestor
Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. All living beings are in fact descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal comm ...
with new world jays and magpies.
Habitat and distribution
This species is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
to Sri Lanka, where it is found in tall, undisturbed forest in the mountains, foothills, and adjoining lowlands of the wet zone. It is found from elevations of below 150 to 2150 m. It is not often seen in disturbed habitat such as gardens or plantations.
Surveys conducted from 2004-2006 found individuals of this species in 38 separate forest patches contained within six forest complexes within its range in the wet zone of southern Sri Lanka.
Behaviour
In spite of their avoidance of human-disturbed habitats, the Sri Lanka blue magpie tolerates and is even attracted to the presence of humans.Alwis NS, Perera P, Dayawansa NP. 2016. Response of tropical avifauna to visitor recreational disturbances: a case study from the Sinharaja World Heritage Forest, Sri Lanka. Avian Research 7(15). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40657-016-0050-5 In response to low and moderate levels of recreational disturbance, and small to medium-sized groups of human visitors, numbers of Sri Lanka blue magpies increased, unlike other birds. A group of individuals was often observed waiting near trails, expecting to be fed by groups of human visitors.
Vocalizations
The Sri Lanka blue magpie produces a great variety of vocalizations, including a jingle, a ''chink-chink, crakrakrakrak,'' and a ''whee-whee''''.''
Thirteen different common call types have been identified for the Sri Lanka blue magpie, including
mimicry
In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. Often, mimicry f ...
calls.Ratnayake CP, Goodale E, Kotagama SW. 2010. Two sympatric species of passerine birds imitate the same raptor calls in alarm contexts. Naturwissenschaften. 97: 103-108. DOI 10.1007/s00114-009-0617-7 Individuals have been recorded using two raptor calls quite frequently, usually while
mobbing
Mobbing, as a sociological term, means bullying of an individual by a group, in any context, such as a family, peer group, school, workplace, neighborhood, community, or online. When it occurs as physical and emotional abuse in the workplace, suc ...
a predator (the ''
Accipiter
''Accipiter'' is a genus of birds of prey in the family Accipitridae. With 51 recognized species it is the most diverse genus in its family. Most species are called goshawks or sparrowhawks, although almost all New World species (excepting the n ...
'' high-pitched call and the
mountain hawk-eagle
The mountain hawk-eagle (''Nisaetus nipalensis'') or Hodgson's hawk-eagle, is a large bird of prey native to Asia. The latter name is in reference to the naturalist, Brian Houghton Hodgson, who described the species after collecting one himsel ...
(''Nisaetus nipalensis kelaarti'') call) These raptor calls are mimicked by another species that occupies the same region, the greater racket-tailed drongo (''Dicrurus paradiseus''), implying that these imitated predator calls can act as alarm signals for multiple species.
Sri Lanka blue magpies do not just imitate the calls of predators, however. They have been observed mimicking the calls and songs of other birds in their prolonged and elaborate subsong.
Diet
These birds use their strong legs and feet to forage, and have been observed hanging upside down and holding down their prey with ease.
Their diet is mainly carnivorous, featuring insects, frogs, and small lizards, but they have been known to consume fruit, as well, and some observations suggest that they also prey on eggs or young of other bird species.Sri Lanka magpie (''Urocissa ornata''). 2007. ARKive. Images of Life on Earth. Published by Wildscreen, Bristol (UK). Retrieved on 16-09-2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20070623220552/http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/birds/Urocissa_ornata/ Sri Lanka blue magpies have been observed rubbing hairy caterpillars against mossy branches to remove irritating hairs prior to consuming them.
Reproduction
Sri Lanka blue magpies are
monogamous
Monogamy ( ) is a form of dyadic relationship in which an individual has only one partner during their lifetime. Alternately, only one partner at any one time (serial monogamy) — as compared to the various forms of non-monogamy (e.g., pol ...
, use co-operative breeding to raise their young, and can be seen in small flocks of up to seven birds, while each bird maintains a territory.
The generation length of Sri Lanka blue magpies is 6.7 years. Breeding season is from January through March, and three to five eggs, which are white covered with brown spots, are laid in a clutch. Cup-shaped nests are built atop small, slender trees and lined with soft materials like
lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.
Both sexes build the nest and feed offspring, with only the female incubating them.
Conservation status
The Sri Lanka blue magpie is listed as vulnerable, due to the fragmentation and ongoing decline of the population. Surveys performed in 2004-2006 estimate the population at 10,181-19,765 individuals, although their breeding strategy of monogamy and co-operative breeding has led to that estimate being reduced to 9,500-19,500 individuals total to reflect their
effective population size
The effective population size (''N'e'') is a number that, in some simplified scenarios, corresponds to the number of breeding individuals in the population. More generally, ''N'e'' is the number of individuals that an idealised population w ...
.
The main threat to the survival of the Sri Lanka blue magpie is habitat loss due to forest being cleared for agricultural land, mines, logging, and human settlement. A moratorium on logging in wet zones in 1990, plus the legal protection of this species in Sri Lanka, have the potential to slow their population decline, but air pollution causing forest die-back and the use of
biocides
A biocide is defined in the European legislation as a chemical substance or microorganism intended to destroy, deter, render harmless, or exert a controlling effect on any harmful organism. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses a slig ...
in the hill country continue to threaten the Sri Lanka blue magpie.
One of the factors preventing the Sri Lanka blue magpie from moving into disturbed habitat has been suggested to be the presence of another bird, the
Asian koel
The Asian koel (''Eudynamys scolopaceus'') is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, the Cuculiformes. It is found in the Indian Subcontinent, China, and Southeast Asia. It forms a superspecies with the closely related black-billed koels, and ...
(''Eudynamys scolopaceus)'', which is a
brood parasite
Brood parasites are animals that rely on others to raise their young. The strategy appears among birds, insects and fish. The brood parasite manipulates a host, either of the same or of another species, to raise its young as if it were its ow ...
.
In culture
In Sri Lanka, this bird is known as () in Sinhala. The blue magpie appears on a 10c Sri Lankan postal stamp, which was in wide usage in the 1980s through 1990s.
References
Further reading
* ''Birds of India'' by Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp,
* ''Crows and Jays'' by Madge and Burn,