The Philippine magpie-robin (''Copsychus mindanensis'') is a species of

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 ...

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 ...

. 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 ...

. It was formerly a subspecies of

Oriental magpie-robin The Oriental magpie-robin (''Copsychus saularis'') is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but now considered an Old World flycatcher. They are distinctive black and white birds with a long ...

but was designated as its own species. It has a wide range of habitat including open forest, second growth, cultivated areas, gardens and agricultural areas up to 1,000 meters above sea level.

Description and taxonomy

Ebird describes it as "A common medium-sized bird of open forest, scrub, and gardens from the lowlands to middle elevations in the mountains. Male has black upperparts, throat, and chest, a white belly, and a prominent white mark in the wing. In the female, the black parts are replaced by gray, except for the wing, which remains black. Similar in size and color to Philippine Pied-Fantail, but has a white mark in the wing. Song is a pleasant, medium-pitched warbling. Also gives a short descending scratchy song, harsh rasping notes, or a pulsing, downslurred “chew! cew! chew!” The Philippine magpie-robin was described by the French polymath

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French Natural history, naturalist, mathematician, and cosmology, cosmologist. He held the position of ''intendant'' (director) at the ''Jardin du Roi'', now ca ...

in 1775 in his '' Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux'' from a specimen collected on the island of

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...

in the Philippines. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by

François-Nicolas Martinet François-Nicolas Martinet (1731 - c. 1800) was a French engineer, engraver and naturalist. Although trained as an engineer and draftsman, he began to produce engravings for books and it later became his primary profession. Martinet's year of b ...

in the ''Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle'' which was produced under the supervision of

Edme-Louis Daubenton Edme-Louis Daubenton (12 August 1730 – 12 December 1785) was a French naturalist. Daubenton was the cousin of another French naturalist, Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton. Georges-Louis Leclerc, the Comte de Buffon engaged Edme-Louis Daubenton to su ...

to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist

Pieter Boddaert Pieter Boddaert (1730 – 6 May 1795) was a Dutch physician and naturalist. Early life, family and education Boddaert was the son of a Middelburg jurist and poet by the same name (1694–1760). The younger Pieter obtained his M.D. at the Univers ...

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 ...

''Turdus mindanensis'' in his catalogue of the ''Planches Enluminées''. The Philippine magpie-robin is now one of 12 species placed in the

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 ...

'' Copsychus'' that was introduced by the German naturalist

Johann Georg Wagler Johann Georg Wagler (28 March 1800 – 23 August 1832) was a German herpetologist and ornithologist. Wagler was assistant to Johann Baptist von Spix, and gave lectures in zoology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich after it was moved t ...

in 1827. It was formerly considered as a

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 ...

of the

oriental magpie-robin The Oriental magpie-robin (''Copsychus saularis'') is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but now considered an Old World flycatcher. They are distinctive black and white birds with a long ...

(''Copsychus saularis'') but was promoted to species status based on the results of a

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study that was published in 2009. The species is

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 ...

. The genus name ''Copsychus'' is from 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 ...

''kopsukhos'' or ''kopsikhos'' for a "blackbird". The specific ''mindanensis'' comes from "Mindanao", the type locality. It differs from the

with its white belly, all black tail, paler gray throat and breast in female, smaller size especially its bill and wing It also considerably differs vocally.

Ecology and behavior

Not much data on the diet of this specific species. Diet consists mostly of insects, small vertebrate, seeds and fruit. Forages on the ground and vegetation. Breeding season is from April to July. Nest is an untidy cup made from grass, roots and fibres on bamboo clumps, trunks, branches and even on man made structures. Clutch size is usually 2 eggs.

Habitat and conservation status

This species is extremely adaptable to almost any habitat except montane forest, found in lowland forest, second growth, agricultural areas, scrub and parks. The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has classified the species as

least concern 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 is common throughout its wide range. Its adaptabllity to able to thrive in degraded habitat has made one of the few Philippine endemic birds that does not have a declining population.

References

Philippine magpie-robin Endemic birds of the Philippines Philippine magpie-robin Philippine magpie-robin {{Muscicapidae-stub