Indochinese Blue Flycatcher Cyornis sumatrensis Scientific name definitions

14–15 cm. Medium-sized flycatcher, male very similar to C. tickelliae, female with brownish upperparts and rufous breast. Male nominate race has lower forehead to cheeks, lower ear-coverts and chin blackish blue; rest of head and upperparts, including upperwing and tail, fairly dark blue; throat light buffish, breast orange-tinged rufous, remaining underparts white; iris dark brown; bill black; legs brownish. Female has olive-tinged grey-brown head, neck-side and upperparts, and occasionally also tail (considerable individual variation), lower forehead and lores pale buff, chin and throat variably pale orange-buff or whiter, breast dark rufous, remiges and tail feathers sometimes edged warm brown. Juvenile is dark greyish brown above, with small buffish speckles or streaks on crown, larger spots on mantle and scapulars, pale buff tips to median and greater wing-coverts, face finely streaked/mottled brown and buffish, narrow buff eyering and lores; chin pale buff, breast faintly barred warm brown, lower breast and flanks buffish, undertail-coverts whitish. Race <em>indochina</em> has throat darker than nominate, female olive-grey above except for blue uppertail-coverts and tail; lamprus is larger than nominate, with more black on chin, female paler on breast.

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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.

Inhabits lowland and submontane open dry woodlands and forest, including secondary forest, edges, groves, abandoned plantations, edges of cultivation, villages and large wooded gardens, bamboo, scrub and bushes along streams; where C. rufigastra is absent, e.g. on Langkawi I (off NW Peninsular Malaysia), occurs also in mangroves and transition forest. Lowlands to 915 m (to 600 m in Thailand), but perhaps to c. 1300 m in Myanmar (see Status and Conservation).

Little information; diet includes small invertebrates and larvae. Solitary or in pairs; occasionally in mixed-species flocks in dry woodland. Perches upright; flicks tail, often simultaneously giving sharp call. Actively forages in lower to middle levels of forest, also in undergrowth along banks of streams and around bushes; often most active at dawn and towards dusk. Most prey items taken by hawking or in sallying flight; occasionally hovers to pick item from foliage.

inlinemedia a series of up to 6–7 (always fewer than ten) slightly slurred, metallic trilling notes, most phrases with first notes higher and last notes lower, e.g. “tee-titi-wit-titu-wuu”. Calls include hard “tac”or “kak”, also “tik-tik” like call note of a flowerpecker (Dicaeidae); also, a sharp “trrt-trrt”.

Season Apr–Aug. Territorial; displaying male leans sideways and raises crest and back feathers while vibrating them, also partially fans and spreads tail. Nest a loosely constructed open cup, mostly of moss, grass, plant fibres, and bamboo and other leaves, placed up to 2 m from ground in crevice in rocky wall, between boulders, in hole in bamboo or tree trunk or among roots of upturned tree. Clutch 3–4 eggs; both parents tend nestlings; no information on duration of incubation and nestling periods. Nests parasitized by Brush Cuckoo (Cacomantis variolosus).

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Common in Thailand and fairly common in Cambodia; common in Peninsular Malaysia, but scarce S of Selangor. On Sumatra known from a single record in NE (type locality of the species). Range perhaps more extensive than thought in W of distribution, with recent records, postulated to involve this species (but perhaps C. banyumas) from around Kalaw, in C Myanmar, at higher elevation than recorded elsewhere for C. sumatrensis; confirmation needed (3 Bezuijen, M.R., Eaton, J.A., Gidean, Hutchinson, R.O. and Rheindt, F.E. (2010). Recent and historical bird records for Kalaw, eastern Myanmar (Burma), between 1895 and 2009. Forktail 26: 49–74. Close ). This species’ population is thought to be stable in the absence of evidence for any declines or substantial threats.