Pied Shrike-Babbler Pteruthius flaviscapis Scientific name definitions

14 cm. Adult male has crown, lores, cheek and ear-coverts black, broad postocular supercilium white, upperparts mid-grey, rump greyer, upperwing and tail black with bluish gloss, tertials yellow with chestnut inner webs and tips, inner flight-feathers tipped white; throat, submoustachial area and underparts greyish-white, very vague pale greyish-buff tinge on flanks and lower belly; iris bluish, grey, brown or chestnut; maxilla mostly blackish, mandible pale bluish slate; legs dark flesh to pale grey. Female has dull olive-grey head with vague whitish postocular supercilium, brownish olive-grey mask with whitish shaft-streaks, dull olive-grey upperparts, dull olive-yellow wing fringing and tail, buffy-white underparts with olive wash on lower flanks. Juvenile male has crown grey-tinged yellowish brown, cheeks and ear-coverts dark grey, mantle olive-brown, wing-coverts edged yellowish white, tail tips yellow; juvenile female has head grey-brown (as mantle), ear-coverts dark slate-grey. For differences from formerly conspecific P. aeralatus see Taxonomy (above).

Mountains of Java.

Recorded in the midstorey and canopy of montane and submontane forest, at 1000–3000 m.

No information, but diet and foraging behaviour presumably similar to those of P. aeralatus.

Song comprises a hard, loud, singled and doubled (more commonly) or singled and tripled “ip-chip-chip” or “ip chip-ch-chip”, lasting 0·7 seconds, repeated regularly, differing from that of P. aeralatus only in structure of the motif.

Virtually nothing known, but a male and female photographed on a nest in Apr, and still-dependent but fledged young in late Jan.

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Restricted-range species: confined to Javan and Bali forests EBA, with overall range estimated at 148,000 km². Uncommon to relatively common but fairly widespread on Java, and population believed to be decreasing; uncommon in Gunung Gede-Pangrango National Park, in W of island, and also recorded as being uncommon in Cibodas-Gunung Gede Nature Reserve.