The blue-wattled bulbul (''Brachypodius nieuwenhuisii'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 5,00 ...

in the

bulbul The bulbuls are members of a family, Pycnonotidae, of medium-sized passerine songbirds, which also includes greenbuls, brownbuls, leafloves, and bristlebills. The family is distributed across most of Africa and into the Middle East, tropic ...

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

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 generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s. The specific epithet commemorates Dutch explorer Anton Willem Nieuwenhuis. The bird is endemic to the islands of

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

and

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

is subtropical or tropical moist lowland

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The status of this rarely seen bird is not known, primarily because it is not clear whether it is in fact a distinct species, or a natural

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

between the

black-headed bulbul The black-headed bulbul (''Brachypodius melanocephalos'') is a member of the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is found in forests in south-eastern Asia. Taxonomy The black-headed bulbul was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Jo ...

and the

grey-bellied bulbul The grey-bellied bulbul (''Ixodia cyaniventris'') is a species of songbird in the bulbul family. It is found on the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threatened by hab ...

or other closely related bulbuls. Alternate names for the blue-wattled bulbul include the Malaysian wattled bulbul, Nieuwenhuis's bulbul and the wattled bulbul.

Subspecies

Two

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

are recognized: * †''B. n. inexspectatus'' - ( Chasen, 1939): extinct; once found on Sumatra * ''B. n. nieuwenhuisii'' - ( Finsch, 1901): found on Borneo

Status

It may be threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

but is only known from two specimens collected in 1900 and 1937, and few observations. Five sightings of the blue-wattled bulbul were recorded in Batu Apoi Forest Reserve in 1992.

References

blue-wattled bulbul Birds of Brunei Birds of Malesia Controversial bird taxa blue-wattled bulbul Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{Pycnonotidae-stub