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Tickell's blue flycatcher (''Cyornis tickelliae'') is a small
Tickell's blue flycatcher is about 11–12 cm long. It sits upright and forages mainly in the overgrowth. The male's upper parts are bright blue, its throat and breast are red, and the rest of the underparts are white. The female is duller blue with a brighter blue brow, shoulder, rump, and tail. It hybridizes with the
Photos and videos
at the Internet Bird Collection {{Taxonbar, from=Q1591239 Tickell's blue-flycatcher Birds of India Tickell's blue flycatcher Tickell's blue flycatcher
passerine
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 th ...
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
in the flycatcher family. This is an insectivorous species which breeds in tropical Asia, from the Indian Subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
eastwards to Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
and western Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
. The Indochinese blue flycatcher
The Indochinese blue flycatcher (''Cyornis sumatrensis'') is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae.
It is found from southern Myanmar and the Malay Peninsula to Indochina and northeastern Sumatra. It was previously considered conspecific w ...
was formerly considered conspecific. They are blue on the upperparts and the throat and breast are rufous. They are found in dense scrub to forest habitats. The name commemorates the wife of the British ornithologist Samuel Tickell
Colonel Samuel Richard Tickell (19 August 1811 – 20 April 1875) was a British army officer, artist, linguist and ornithologist in India and Burma.
Biography
Tickell was born at Cuttack in India to Captain Samuel Tickell (of the 8th regiment of ...
who collected in India and Burma.
Description
Tickell's blue flycatcher is about 11–12 cm long. It sits upright and forages mainly in the overgrowth. The male's upper parts are bright blue, its throat and breast are red, and the rest of the underparts are white. The female is duller blue with a brighter blue brow, shoulder, rump, and tail. It hybridizes with the pale-chinned blue flycatcher
The pale-chinned blue flycatcher or Brook's flycatcher (''Cyornis poliogenys'') is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is a sparrow-sized bird.
Male is bluish-grey on upper parts, rufous throat and white below.
Its nesting season is A ...
(''Cyornis poliogenys'') in the Eastern Ghats of India and these hybrids have sometimes been treated as a subspecies ''vernayi''. The juvenile is streaked and has a spotted mantle, scaly brown upperparts, head and breast, with just the wings and tail being blue.
They have sometimes been known to feed even after dusk. Apart from flying insects they may occasionally pick up crawling insects.
The species shows regional variations in plumage and size and several of these populations have been designated with subspecies names. The nominate form is found in India, Nepal and Myanmar. The Sri Lankan population is separated as ''jerdoni'' (or ''nesea''/''mesaea'' said to be darker)
In the past this species has been considered as a subspecies of the blue-throated blue flycatcher
The blue-throated blue flycatcher (''Cyornis rubeculoides'') is a small passerine bird in the flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. It resembles '' Cyornis tickelliae'' but easily separated by the blue throat. The habitat of this species is a thicke ...
(''Cyornis rubeculoides'') which resembles this but has a blue throat.Habitat and distribution
Tickell's blue flycatcher breeds in dry forest, scrub, bamboo and gardens.Behaviour and ecology
The metallic song of the bird includes a series of clicks followed by five or six notes that end abruptly. The metallic song consists of short clicks followed by five or six notes resembling that of the Spot-breasted fantail. Alarm calls include ''churr'' and clicking notes. It is a wary bird and is easily observed in small gardens too. It is a forest-loving species which is found in thick cover and shade, and particularly haunts the banks of wooded streams. They feed mainly by capturing insects in flight but their prey include other insects such as termites and earwigs that may be gleaned or picked from the ground. Now they are being observed inhabiting garbage places. During the breeding season, they may take larger prey including small vertebrates. A bush frog has been reported as prey in Sri Lanka. The breeding season is April to August (March to June in Sri Lanka). It nests in a hole in a tree or amongst rocks that is lined with fine grass and fibres and lay 3–5 eggs.References
External links
Photos and videos
at the Internet Bird Collection {{Taxonbar, from=Q1591239 Tickell's blue-flycatcher Birds of India Tickell's blue flycatcher Tickell's blue flycatcher