The straw-headed bulbul (''Pycnonotus zeylanicus'') is a species of
songbird 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, tropical As ...
family, Pycnonotidae. It is found from the
Malay Peninsula
The Malay Peninsula (Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area ...
to
Borneo. Its natural
habitats are
subtropical or 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.
Description
TSMF is generally found in large, discont ...
, subtropical or tropical
mangrove forest
Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangroves cannot withstand fr ...
,
subtropical or tropical moist shrubland,
arable land,
plantations, and rural gardens. It is threatened by
habitat loss and
poaching.
The straw-headed bulbul is prized for its singing ability and is a highly sought-after species by bird enthusiasts in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia. This trade is causing population reductions across the species' range and is a major barrier to its conservation. Trapping has been facilitated in recent years by the spread of logging roads across its forest habitat. Due to this, the straw-headed bulbul was uplisted from
endangered to
critically endangered on the
IUCN Red List in 2018.
Taxonomy and systematics
The straw-headed bulbul was originally described in the genus ''
Sturnus''. Alternate names for the straw-headed bulbul include the star-crowned bulbul, straw-crowned bulbul and yellow-crowned bulbul.
References
External links
*
Pycnonotus
Birds of Brunei
Birds of Malesia
Birds described in 1789
Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
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