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Malagasy Bulbul Hypsipetes madagascariensis Scientific name definitions

Lincoln Fishpool and Joseph A. Tobias
Version: 1.1 — Published August 18, 2021

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Field Identification

c. 24 cm; male 39–52 g, female 33–52 g. A medium-large, long-tailed, dark grey bulbul, pointed and loose crown feathers often raised to form shaggy crest. Nominate race has top of head and nape black with dark green wash, glossy; lores, preorbital area and narrow line extending back from rear of eye black, indistinct grey supercilium behind eye, dark grey cheeks and ear-coverts; many individuals have faint grey supraloral spot; upperparts dark slate-grey, shaft and centre of feathers brownish; tail dark grey-brown; wings dark brown, secondaries, tertials and greater wing-coverts narrowly fringed grey; chin often dark, throat and underparts dark grey, somewhat paler on flanks, pale grey-white in centre of belly, undertail-coverts grey with pale fringes; iris dark brown or dark red; bill orange, often with dark tip and distal part of culmen; legs dull horn, dull orange-brown, dull yellowish-orange or pinkish. Sexes alike, female on average smaller than male. Juvenile has crown feathers dull, not glossy black, intermixed brownish, back tinged brown, flight-feathers, wing-coverts and margins of tail feathers rusty. Race rostratus is longer-legged than nominate, black on head extends only to hindcrown (not nape), upperparts and flanks washed brownish, breast also washed brown, belly centre buffy with slight olive tinge.

Systematics History

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.

Sister to H. olivaceus (which see). Birds from Grande Glorieuse I described as race grotei, largely on basis of putative differences in bill size and colour, but not satisfactorily distinguishable from nominate as any slight differences appear to involve individual, not geographical, variation. Two subspecies recognized.

Subspecies

SUBSPECIES

Hypsipetes madagascariensis madagascariensis Scientific name definitions

Hypsipetes madagascariensis madagascariensis
H. m. madagascariensis

Distribution

Comoros (all four main islands and some islets), Glorieuse Archipelago (Grande Glorieuse I) and Madagascar.
SUBSPECIES

Hypsipetes madagascariensis grotei Scientific name definitions

Distribution

Îles Glorieuses (Indian Ocean off Réunion)
SUBSPECIES

Hypsipetes madagascariensis rostratus Scientific name definitions

Hypsipetes madagascariensis rostratus
H. m. rostratus

Distribution

Aldabra.

Distribution

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.

Habitat

Forest of all types, secondary growth, sparsely wooded savanna, orchards, plantations, scattered trees in agricultural fields, urban parks and around habitation. In primary forest in Madagascar, confined to edge habitats in some places, penetrates deep into forest interior in others; sea-level to 2500 m. In Comoros, commonest on Grand Comoro (Njazidja) in coastal areas but found to 700 m (occasionally 1000 m) on Mt Karthala and to 800–900 m on La Grille; to 400 m on Mohéli (Mwali), where also most abundant around coast; at higher altitudes on both islands replaced by H. parvirostris; on Anjouan (Ndzuani) and Mayotte (Maore), where H. parvirostris absent, found to 1100 m and summit (600 m), respectively. Occurs throughout Aldabra wherever trees and scrub present, but less common in mangrove.

Movement

No information; presumed sedentary.

Diet and Foraging

Fruit, also flowers and seeds; also arthropods, including hymenopterans (ants, wasps), ant-lions (Myrmeleonidae), beetles (Coleoptera), bugs (Hemiptera), cicadas (Cicadidae), grasshoppers (Orthoptera), mantids, moths (Lepidoptera), spiders (Araneae). Fruit of native and introduced species taken, including Bakerella, Capparis, Canthium, Celtis, Chassalia, Clidemia, Cordia, Dianella, Ficus, Medinilla, Melia, Neotina, Oncostemum, Pauridiantha, Rinoria, Vaccinium; flowers including Crateva. On Aldabra, fruit includes Apodytes, Asparagus, Flacourtia, Mystroxylon, Passiflora, Phyllanthus, Polysphaeria, Scaevola, Scutia, Solanum, Terminali, Ticalysia, Ricinus, and recorded as feeding at flowers of Agave, Erythrina and Lantana. Conspicuous and noisy. Gregarious when not breeding; often perches high in trees in groups of up to 15 individuals; active. Often joins mixed-species flocks. Communal roosts reported in Comoros (Mayotte), sometimes with Common Mynas (Acridotheres tristis). Usually forages in crowns of trees and bushes; rarely in understorey, except in areas of contact with H. parvirostris on Grand Comoro and Mohéli (Comoros), where tends to keep low in vegetation, with its larger congener in the higher strata. Also picks fruit by hovering or in awkward fluttering flight. Gleans insects from leaves and twigs, catches others in flight in sometimes long aerial sallies. Occasionally feeds on ground on Aldabra.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Highly vocal; calls varied but unmelodic. Common element a brief nasal, disyllabic, penetrating, downward-inflected “tireet” or “tyeeu”, often by several individuals together (perched or in flight), and extended, sometimes with other notes, into conversational 3-note “tireet teetee tireet”, “thci-churr-tchi” or “choo-chee chili”. Also characteristic single nasal mewing (the “cat call” or “bleat”), “eeeee”, “eee-ew”, “nyeeea” or “meu”, often hard to locate. Some inter-island variation in harmonic frequency of cat call noted in Comoros; birds on Mohéli have distinct song type (not noted elsewhere in Comoros), in which song is cut across with short, clear, abrupt whistled “tju”; Glorieuse population also reportedly exhibits some vocal differences from that on Madagascar. Race rostratus has similar repertoire, based on loud, clear “cheep” or “chip” sounds, commonly consisting of 2 notes, second lower than first, sometimes extending to 3 or 4 notes, the final two still lower in pitch; also rapid series ending in louder and higher single note, a harsh alarm call “yeeah”, and a grating “keeeoo”, resembling closely mewing call of nominate.

Breeding

Nesting recorded in Sept–Jan in Madagascar and Sept–Nov in Comoros; breeds mainly Oct–Jan on Aldabra. Nest hemispherical, firmly but not densely constructed of small twigs, fine rootlets, flower stems, dried grass, moss and plant fragments, lined with fine grass and plant stems, bottom may be loosely woven (eggs visible from below), parts of cast reptile skins reported as sometimes incorporated into foundation, external diameter 10–12 cm, depth 6·5–7 cm, internal diameter 7 cm, cup depth 3–5 cm; placed 1–8 m above ground, usually low, sometimes at end of branch, once secured to four points of two adjacent branches with spider webs, on Aldabra 1–2 m up in fork of thorny shrub. Clutch 3 eggs, records of 2 on Anjouan (Comoros); no information on incubation and fledging periods.

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife LC Least Concern
Not globally threatened. Common to very common. Common to abundant throughout much of Madagascar, where it has adapted well to deforestation; recorded mean densities of up to 2·7 birds/ha in Montagne d’Ambre, 117 birds/km² in Anjanaharibe-Sud, 270 birds/km² in Zahamena and 99–311/km² in Zombitse-Vohibasia. One of the three commonest bird species in the Comoros. Recently rediscovered on Grande Glorieuse, where had been reported as extinct; unclear whether earlier reports were incorrect or there has been a subsequent recolonization. Race rostratus widespread on Aldabra, where population estimated at 4000–8000 pairs; 19th-century records from nearby Cosmolédo and Astove may have referred to this race, but now extinct on those atolls. Present in a large number of protected areas on Madagascar; occurs in a number of reserves on Mayotte, but no protected areas exist in the Union of the Comoros. Aldabra Atoll is a nature reserve and World Heritage Site.
Distribution of the Madagascar Bulbul - Range Map
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Distribution of the Madagascar Bulbul

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Recommended Citation

Fishpool, L. and J. A. Tobias (2021). Malagasy Bulbul (Hypsipetes madagascariensis), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.madbul1.01.1
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