The great shortwing (''Heinrichia calligyna'') is a species of

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 family

Muscicapidae The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, Bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica)'' and North ...

, and the only member of its genus. Other common names include giant shortwing, Celebes shortwing and Sulawesi shortwing. It 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 els ...

to Sulawesi in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

where its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and 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 ...

tropical moist montane forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud ...

Description

The great shortwing is a stocky bird with short rounded wings, growing to a length of about . In general size and shape it resembles a

European robin The European robin (''Erithacus rubecula''), known simply as the robin or robin redbreast in Great Britain & Ireland, is a small insectivorous passerine bird that belongs to the chat subfamily of the Old World flycatcher family. About in len ...

(''Erithacus rubecula''). The male is almost entirely very dark blue apart from a small patch of white at either side of the base of the tail. The female is a similar blue colour but has a white spot in front of the eye and a reddish-brown rump. It has a reddish-brown sheen to the throat and upper breast, and greyish-blue underparts. Both sexes have red irises, black beaks and greyish legs.

Distribution

The great shortwing is

to the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia where it occurs at altitudes between . Three subspecies are recognised. ''H. c. simplex'' from northern Sulawesi, ''H. c. calligyna'' from south-central Sulawesi, and ''H. c. picta'' from southeastern Sulawesi.

Ecology

The great shortwing is a shy and secretive bird which lurks in dense foliage, tangled thickets, vines, deep gullies and streamside vegetation. It can sometimes be heard singing in the early morning from dense cover, often with two birds singing in duet. The song is a high-pitched, wavering series of whistles that increase in pitch and volume, the phrase being repeated, over and over again, for up to a minute. The bird feeds on the ground, foraging through the leaf litter, mosses and lichens, presumably feeding on insects, grubs and other small invertebrates. The nesting habits are unknown, but a juvenile was observed in

Lore Lindu National Park Lore Lindu National Park is a protected area of forest on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, in the province of Central Sulawesi. The Indonesian national park is 2,180 km2 covering both lowland and montane forests (200 to 2,610 meters abo ...

in September 2016.

Status

Little is known of the conservation status of the great shortwing but the bird is suspected of declining in numbers because of the destruction of its habitat and the introduction of feral predators. Its area of occurrence is estimated to be about . It is an uncommon species in the lower part of its range but rather more common in the upper part. The

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natur ...

has assessed its conservation status as being of "

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

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q853471 Heinrichia Endemic birds of Sulawesi Birds described in 1931 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot