Seychelles Paradise-Flycatcher Terpsiphone corvina Scientific name definitions

Male 20 cm (excluding elongated central rectrices, which project up to 22 cm beyond others), female 17–20 cm; c. 18 g. Male is all black with blue sheen, and very long black tail; iris brown, eyering wattle and strip of bare facial skin extending to base of bill pale blue; bill pale blue; legs blue-slate. Female is strikingly different, lacks elongated central rectrices, has black head, chestnut-brown upperparts, including wing and tail , creamy-white underparts, which extend onto nape to form collar; eyering wattle and bill pale blue, but no bare facial skin. Immature is like female but duller and browner; bill blackish with pale lower mandible, legs blackish.

La Digue and reintroduced in Denis (1 BirdLife International (2016). IUCN Red List for birds. URL: http://www.birdlife.org (download Nov 2016). Close ) (sporadic reports also Marianne, Félicité and Praslin), in Seychelles.

Native high-canopy broadleaf woodland (at least 17 m tall), primarily of badamier (Terminalia catappa) and takamaka (Calophyllum inophyllum), often near marshy areas. Mostly (60–70 % of population) on plateau areas (less than 10 m above sea-level) of La Digue; also, at lower densities, on low and middle-altitude woodland slopes, but rarely in areas with low-canopy native dry forest. Importance of proximity of freshwater wetland areas may have been overemphasized; perhaps an artifact of the distribution of remnant patches of native woodland dominated by badamier and takamaka.

Resident; some dispersal indicated by attempted recolonization of Marianne I.

Adult diet 90% insects and 10% spiders (Araneae). Great majority of prey items (88·5%) smaller than 1 cm, 8·4% c.1–2 cm and 3·2% larger than 2 cm. Of identified insect prey (most items smaller than 1 cm not identified), orthopterans and lepidopterans most commonly taken, with 41·1% and 25·8%, respectively; other identified prey dipterans (8·2%), cockroaches (Blattodea; 7·9%), hymenopterans (2·3%), dragonflies (Odonata; 2·3%), neuropterans (1·5%) and phasmids (0·3%). Forages mainly at 4–8 m in native badamier and takamaka trees, but recorded also in other vegetation (e.g. vanilla and mangroves); vertical separation in feeding height between sexes, male in lower layers and female higher, possibly reflecting sexually dimorphic plumage (black male better camouflaged at darker lower levels, countershaded female more successful higher up). Prey taken either by gleaning or sally-gleaning (taking item from leaf surface while perched or while on the wing) or by hawking (aerial prey taken on the wing in open areas between trees); gleaning most common feeding method (81%) of both sexes.

Call a harsh “zweet”; song a repeated piping whistle, “pli-li-pli-pli”; female mostly silent, occasionally quite vocal, uttering quiet twitter or even some subsong.

Breeds in all months but with concentration (63%) during wettest period, Nov–Apr, very rarely in driest months (Jul–Aug); c. 3–4 (average 3·4) breeding attempts in 12-month period, but only 1·2–1·5 attempts successful. Socially monogamous, and territorial. Nest built by both sexes, a neat cup, bound with spider web, consisting of palm fibres and casuarina (Casuarina) needles, lined with finer material such as grass, often with bulky dangling “tail” of untidy material; placed 2–10 m but mostly 3–5 m above ground, typically on outer downward-hanging thin branch, mainly (95%) of native broadleaf tree (54·5% badamier, 37·8% takamaka), at edge of clearing; territory size 0·4–2·46 ha, mean 1·04 ha. Period between start of nest-building and egg-laying 12–48 days. Clutch 1 egg, whitish with brownish-red spots; incubation by both sexes, mostly by female, duration 17 days; nestling period 14·5 days (mean interval between laying and fledging c. 32 days); fledglings dependent on and fed by parents for up to 2 months, may remain on territory for up to a further month; juveniles recruited into population c. 10 months after fledging, but new territory-holding individuals may not be reproductively mature. Annual breeding success low: 62% of nests produce no fledglings, majority (95%) of failures due to depredation, most during incubation stage; identified nest predators are rats (Rattus), reptiles, and two instances involved Seychelles Black Bulbul (Hypsipetes crassirostris), but in 86% of depredated nests cause unknown. Age at first breeding 1 year. Annual adult mortality c. 21%; rats, domestic cats (Felis catus) and humans taking a toll, but in majority of cases cause of death unknown.

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED. Restricted-range species: present in Granitic Seychelles EBA. First described from Praslin I, in 1860s, then present also on islands of La Digue, Marianne and Félicité, but disappeared from the last two in 1930s. La Digue (10 km²) has harboured the only viable population since 1940s; 30 years later 50 individuals documented, and population estimated to be 70–80 individuals in 1977/78 and 90–100 in 1988, and confined to the (low-altitude) W plateau. Recent island-wide surveys on La Digue show that population increased from c. 150–200 individuals in 1995–1996 to more than 100 territories (more than 200 individuals) in 2001, with the species’ presence confirmed also elsewhere on the island (off plateau). In 1997–2001, several individuals (including a mature male) recorded on neighbouring Marianne, but in 2002 only one (female-type plumage) was confirmed as present; sporadic sightings of solitairy birds on Félicité and Praslin have also been reported. These records away from La Digue still represent a non-viable overspill, but, given the high population levels on La Digue, further emigration seems possible. In Nov 2008, 23 adult birds were translocated to Denis Island, and the first chick was successfully fledged in 2009; habitat is being restored on the island BirdLife International (2015) Species factsheet: Terpsiphone corvina. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 27/07/2015. . The total population is now estimated to number 210–278 birds, equating to 140–190 mature individuals, and to be growing. Reasons for the population increase since 1988 not clear, but may involve this species’ ability to utilize forest fragments and forest-edge habitat, as well as improved awareness among local inhabitants and species protection (especially the banning of catapults). High rates of habitat loss and fragmentation resulting from tourism, housing developments and a (recent) disease affecting the takamaka tree (which led to loss of specific territories) are the greatest threats on La Digue; conserving (and possibly replanting) the high-canopy native takamaka (Calophyllum innophylum) and badamier (Terminalia catappa) forest on La Digue and the restoration of viable populations on neighbouring islands are considered crucial to the species’ long-term survival. In addition, conservation measures could be extended to low hill forest (less threatened by development), where a breeding population exists (albeit at lower density than the plateau one) that may act as a buffer against extinction.