Family Old World Flycatchers and Chats (Muscicapidae)
Vulnerable
White-bellied Blue Robin (Myiomela albiventris)
Taxonomy
French: Myiomèle à ventre blanc German: Weißbauchschmätzer Spanish: Alicorto ventriblanco
Other common names:
White-bellied Shortwing
Taxonomy:
Callene albiventris
Blanford
, 1868,Palni Hills, India
.Until recently placed in genus Brachypteryx and treated as conspecific with M. major. Monotypic.
Distribution:
Extreme S Western Ghats (S of Palaghat Gap), in S Kerala and W Tamil Nadu (S India).
Descriptive notes
14 cm. Male is slaty-blue above and to breast, shading to blue-grey flanks clear-cut from white mid-belly to vent; white supercilium, black lores; black bill and legs. Female... read more
Voice
Song a loud, sustained, sprightly, thrush-like series of short beautiful phrases, each consisting... read more
Habitat
Streamside vegetation and wet areas of undergrowth within forest patches (sholas) and densely... read more
Food and feeding
No information; lives in low vegetation and on ground, where presumably forages for small insects and other invertebrates.
Breeding
Mar–Jul, mainly Apr–May, but juvenile with unossified skull in Jan. Few nests found, much moss used in construction. Other... read more
Movements
Sedentary. Some possible altitudinal movement suspected.
Status and conservation
VULNERABLE. Previously considered Endangered. Very small and severely fragmented range on isolated mountain tops is contracting rapidly as a result of conversion of forest... read more
Conservation
Populations on two sky island connected only by a terrain that got deforested in the past centuary showed different song structure indicating a recent fragmentation.
References
Robin, V. V.;Katti, Madhusudan;Purushotham, Chetana;Sancheti, Aditi;Sinha, Anindya 2011. Singing in the sky: song variation in an endemic bird on the sky islands of southern India. Animal Behaviour. 82: 513–520
http://www.skyisland.in/Shortwing_Project_files/robin_wbs_song.pdf
Thank you bng.liocichlas!
Thank you bng.liocichlas! Unfortunately, I have been unable to access this paper, since the server appears to be offline. I have included the Plos ONE ref.
Updated Link to the paper
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233406045_Singing_in_the_sky_So...
Song Characteristics
More information on differences in song characteristics of this species and Nilgiri Blue Robin in a recently published paper.
Purushotham, Chetana B. and Robin, V. V. 2016. Sky island bird populations isolated by ancient genetic barriers are characterized by different song traits than those isolated by recent deforestation, Ecology and Evolution. url = http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2475