The Mauritius bulbul (''Hypsipetes olivaceus''), is a

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 ...

belonging to 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 ...

, Pycnonotidae. It is endemic to

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The Mauritius bulbul was the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of the obsolete

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 ...

''Ixocincla'', which united various more or less closely related bulbuls from the entire Indian Ocean region.Gregory (2000) Formerly, some authorities considered the Mauritius bulbul to belong to the genus ''

Turdus ''Turdus'' is a genus of medium-sized mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the wider thrush family, Turdidae. The genus name ''Turdus'' is Latin for 'thrush'. Most of the species are called thrushes; the term thrush is also used for man ...

''. It has also been classified as a subspecies of the

Réunion bulbul The Réunion bulbul (''Hypsipetes borbonicus'') is a species of the bulbul family of passerine birds. It is endemic to Réunion. Taxonomy and systematics The Réunion bulbul was originally described in the genus ''Turdus''. Formerly, some author ...

. Alternative names include the Mauritius black bulbul and the Mauritius merle.

Description

The Mauritius bulbul can reach a size up to . It is characterized by bright yellow-brown eyes, pink legs, and an orange to yellow-hued bill. Its plumage is generally greyish contrasted with a black crest. The plumage of the juveniles is pale brown. Their bill is blackish.Staub (1976)

Behaviour and ecology

Breeding

During the southern summer, the female lays two pinkish coloured eggs in a nest made from straw and roots. The incubation lasts between 14 and 16 days.

Food and feeding

The diet of the Mauritius bulbul consists of insects, seeds, and fruits. The ripe berries of the non-native Spanish Flag are especially favoured.

Threats

In earlier times, it was often served as a dish on festive days. Later, its main threats shifted to the replacement of their forest

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 ...

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

s and

invasive weed An invasive species is an introduced species that harms its new environment. Invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native species ...

s (including ''L. camara'', which the birds themselves help to spread) and

predation Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...

by the introduced

crab-eating macaque The crab-eating macaque (''Macaca fascicularis''), also known as the long-tailed macaque or cynomolgus macaque, is a cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. As a synanthropic species, the crab-eating macaque thrives near human settlem ...

. In the mid-1970s, only 200 pairs remained, but then the decline was stopped. Today it is rare but has a quite stable population; 280 pairs were counted in 1993.Staub (1976), BLI (2008)

References

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External links

* * * * * Hypsipetes Endemic birds of Mauritius Birds described in 1837 Taxa named by Sir William Jardine Taxa named by Prideaux John Selby {{Pycnonotidae-stub