Family Old World Flycatchers and Chats (Muscicapidae)

Least Concern

Blue Whistling-thrush (Myophonus caeruleus)

Taxonomy

French: Arrenga siffleur German: Purpurpfeifdrossel Spanish: Arrenga común

Taxonomy:

Gracula (caerulea

) Scopoli

, 1786,

Canton, China

Race flavirostris has been considered possibly to merit full species status, but basis for such a separation unclear. Birds from Tien Shan S to Pamirs described as race turcestanicus, but considered inseparable from temminckii. Six subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution

M. c. caeruleus (Scopoli, 1786) – Black-billed Whistling-thrush – C & E China (from SE Gansu and E Sichuan, E to N Hebei and Zhejiang, S to Guangdong and Guangxi); non-breeding also S to E Myanmar, N Thailand, Laos and N Vietnam.

M. c. temminckii Vigors, 1831 – #RW Tien Shan S to Afghanistan, and E through Himalayas and NE India to S China (E to N, W & SW Sichuan) and N & NE Myanmar; non-breeding at lower altitudes below breeding range.

M. c. eugenei A. O. Hume, 1873 – C, E & SE Myanmar, W, N & E Thailand, S China (C & S Yunnan and SW Guangxi)#R and N & C Indochina.

M. c. crassirostris Robinson, 1910 – SE Thailand, Cambodia and Malay Peninsula (S to Kedah on W coast and Haadyai on E).

M. c. dichrorhynchus Salvadori, 1879 – Malay Peninsula (S of Kedah and Pattani) and Sumatra.

M. c. flavirostris (Horsfield, 1821) – Yellow-billed Whistling-thrush – Java.

What do coloured bullet points mean?

Descriptive notes

29–35 cm; 136–231 g. Male nominate race is bluish-black, upper body to rump covered with metallic violet-blue spots, with concentration from forehead to crown... read more

Voice

Song, given all year, generally from tree or cliff, sometimes briefly in flight, is a long... read more

Habitat

Broadleaf evergreen and mixed deciduous forests and more open bush with scattered larger trees,... read more

Food and feeding

Invertebrates such as water beetles, ants and other hymenopterans, cockchafer larvae, dung beetles, slugs, snails, crabs, froglets,... read more

Breeding

Apr–Aug in N & W of range; Apr–Jul in Nepal; Feb–Apr in extreme S Myanmar, later in rest of country, with second... read more

Movements

Resident, but subject to vertical movements. In Himalayas winters mostly down to foothills, but in... read more

Status and conservation

Not globally threatened. Common in most of range wherever watercourses present. In Afghanistan, one of commonest species along rivers and side-streams in Nuristan; familiar... read more

Bibliography

Public comments

Scientific classification

Class: Aves

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Muscicapidae

— Show family text —

In past, traditionally treated as an outsize family that also included expanded versions of Sylviidae, Timaliidae and Turdidae; these three were subsequently split off as three separate families, but still in much expanded form as compared to their current treatment. Since publication of HBW, limits of all these families have been dramatically rewritten due to a barrage of occasionally contradictory molecular data. Within present family problems remain, particularly due to incomplete taxon sampling, but near-complete screening to species level has now been attempted for at least a handful of genera (notably Oenanthe and Saxicola), and large elements of consensus have emerged, among them the recognition of four principal lineages, here treated as subfamilies. Most notable development involves transfer of many genera from Turdidae to present family, including Alethe, Cichladusa, Heteroxenicus, Brachypteryx, Heinrichia, Myophonus, Monticola, Thamnolaea, Myrmecocichla, Pogonocichla, Swynnertonia, Stiphrornis, Sheppardia, Cossypha, Xenocopsychus, Irania, Luscinia, Erithacus, Tarsiger, Cercotrichas, Copsychus, Phoenicurus, Saxicola and Oenanthe. Genetic sampling has also revealed extensive paraphyly, with the result that many species have switched genera. Some genera have disappeared completely into synonymy (e.g. Erythropygia), and others have shrunk to just one or two species (e.g. Luscinia), while a few have become substantially larger (e.g. Cercotrichas, Oenanthe).