Indian Robin Copsychus fulicatus Scientific name definitions

c. 16 cm; 17–20 g. Male nominate race is glossy black above and below, with white shoulder patch and chestnut vent; long black tail typically cocked; black bill and legs. Female is brownish-grey above with browner ear-coverts, dark grey below, chestnut vent. Juvenile is like female but darker, throat lightly mottled buff-white. Race <em>cambaiensis</em> male is mid-brown above, female paler than nominate; erythrurus is dark brown above; <em>intermedius</em> is very dark brown above; <em>leucopterus</em> is larger and shorter-tailed, female darker.

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Palm groves, bare hillsides, open rocky places, newly burnt clearings, cultivated “cheenas”, stony “patnas”, arid stony escarpments, low rocky outcrops, low open scrub with scattered trees, saltpans and sand dunes dotted with stunted Tamarix and Prosopis, stony scrub around human settlements, gardens, graveyards, deserted buildings, villages and dwellings; often perching on roofs and entering verandas. Lowlands, to 1600 m Sri Lanka. In Pakistan the most typical bird of wild olive (Olea cuspidata) and Acacia modesta thorn-scrub.

Sedentary.

Insects (including termites, ants, beetles, flies, caterpillars, grasshoppers, bees and wasps) and their eggs, spiders; marked preference for termites. One record of gecko being struck from wall, battered and eaten, and one (same area) of small frog being caught, battered (8 minutes) and fed to young; probably same bird involved. Recorded feeding on a carcass . Forages largely on ground, darting about with agile hopping gait and moving from spot to spot in short jerky flight, occasionally entering clumps of herbs or thorn bush, sometimes flipping over small stones and leaves with bill; very little aerial sallying. When feeding young, foraging behaviour includes use of wings and tail in attempts to flush insects.

Song a very short, high-pitched, creaky squeaky jumble of 4–5 notes in minor key, used in direct confrontations with intruding conspecifics; lasts less than 0·5 seconds, repeated every 5–6 seconds. Calls include merry “cheery-wee” or “pi-peear”, uttered at intervals, apparently serving as territorial advertising “song”; short clear upslurred whistle, “sfveit!”; harsh scolding “cheee” towards potential predators; and harsh “chur-r” in greater alarm.

Mainly Apr–Jun in Pakistan and India but variable, Dec–Jul, even into Aug; Mar–Sept in Sri Lanka; two broods, sometimes three. Nest an untidy, fairly small pad of grass, rootlets and rubbish lined with feathers or hair, often adorned with sloughed snakeskin, placed under stone or clod of earth in ploughed field, in hole in old building, earth bank, tree or stump, in old pot or can, between tangled roots, down well-shaft, in old tomb cavity, under roof tiles or on veranda; nest-site often reused for additional broods. Eggs 2–4 (but up to 6, once 7, possibly fresh and abandoned eggs), pinkish-white to creamy-white, sometimes with greenish or yellowish tinge, speckled and blotched reddish; incubation period 11–13 days. No other information.

Not globally threatened. Common in Pakistan and throughout Indian Subcontinent S of Himalayas; uncommon to rare in S Nepal. Very common in dry zone but less so in wet zone in Sri Lanka.