The coleto (''Sarcops calvus'') is a

starling Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine (perching) birds known for the often dark, glossy iridescent sheen of their plumage; their complex vocalizations including mimicking; and their distinctive, often elaborate swarming behavior, know ...

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), ...

(

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 ...

Sturnidae) in the

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Sarcops''. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

to the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. 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 ...

s are

tropical dry forest The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...

tropical moist lowland forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Description TSMF is generally found in large ...

, and tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

. In Filipino and

Tagalog Tagalog may refer to: Language * Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines ** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language ** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language * Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Tagal ...

, this bird is known as ''kuling'' or ''koleto'', while in Central Visayas, it is commonly known as the ''sal-ing''.

Description and taxonomy

EBird eBird is an online database of bird observations providing scientists, researchers and amateur naturalists with real-time data about bird distribution and abundance. Originally restricted to sightings from the Western Hemisphere, the project e ...

describes the bird as " A fairly large bird of forest canopy and more open wooded areas from the lowlands to low elevations in the mountains. Often seen on exposed snags. Pale gray from the back of the neck down the back to the rump and the sides. The rest of the underparts and wings are black. Head mostly covered with bare pink skin. Unmistakable. Voice includes a mixture of clicks, squeals, metallic warbling, and piping notes." Coleto

In 1760 the French zoologist

Mathurin Jacques Brisson Mathurin Jacques Brisson (; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosophy, natural philosopher. Brisson was born on 30 April 1723 at Fontenay-le-Comte in the Vendée department of western France. Note that page 14 ...

included a description of the coleto in his ''Ornithologie'' based on a specimen collected in the Philippines. He used the French name ''Le merle chauve des Philippines'' and the Latin ''M''name "''erula Calva Philippensis''. The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the

binomial system The binomial system () is a voting system that was used in the legislative elections of Chile between 1989 and 2013. The binomial system is the D'Hondt method with an open list where ''every'' constituency returns ''two'' (hence the name) rep ...

and are not recogniszd by the

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries. Orga ...

. WI 1766 , when the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

updated his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...

'' for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the coleto. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

''Gracula calva'' and cited Brisson's work. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

is from Latin ''calvus'' "bald" or "without hair". This species is now the only member of the genus ''Sarcops'' that was introduced by the English ornithologist Arthur Walden in 1875. The name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

words ''sarx, sarkos'' "flesh" and ''ōps, ōpos'' "face" or "complexion".

Subspecies

Three

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 recognised: * ''S. c. calvus'' (Linnaeus, 1766) – north Philippines * ''S. c. melanonotus'' ( Ogilvie-Grant, 1906) – central and south Philippines * ''S. c. lowii'' ( Sharpe, 1877) –

Sulu Archipelago The Sulu Archipelago ( Tausug: Kapū'-pūan sin Sūg Sulat Sūg: , ) is a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean, in the southwestern Philippines. The archipelago forms the northern limit of the Celebes Sea and southern limit of the Sulu Se ...

(southwest Philippines)

Ecology and behavior

Feeds on fruit, berries, small insects and nectar. Forages singly, in pairs and occasionally in small groups of up to 25, in fruiting trees. Breeds from March to September. Nests in cavities in dead trees. Clutch size is typically 2 to 3 eggs. The Coleto was a recently discovered host of the brood parasitic Asian Koel (''Eudynamys scolopaceus'') in the Philippines.

Habitat and conservation status

This bird's habitat is primary and secondary forest and scrubland up to 1,000 meters above sea level. IUCN has assessed this bird as

least-concern species A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

as it has a large range and is common throughout. However,

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

in the Philippines continues throughout the country due to slash and burn farming, mining, illegal logging and habitat conversion. It is widely caught for the pet trade as it has the ability to copy human speech.

References

External links

* * Sturnidae Endemic birds of the Philippines Birds described in 1766 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Sturnidae-stub