The Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike (Hemipus picatus) Feb 14 -Bondla WLS -Goa This is a small passerine bird currently placed in the cuckoo-shrike family but possibly closer to the bushshrikes of Africa. It is found in the forests of tropical southern Asia from the Himalayas and hills of the Indian subcontinent east to Indonesia. Mainly insectivorous it is found hunting in the mid-canopy of forests, often joining mixed-species foraging flocks. They perch upright and have a distinctive pattern of black and white, males being more shiny black than the females. In some populations the color of the back is brownish while others have a dark wash on the underside. This bird catches insects by gleaning foliage and making aerial sallies for flushed insects. It will associate with other small birds such as babblers, Velvet-fronted Nuthatch and white-eyes in feeding flocks. They move through the forest and rarely stick to a particular location. The nesting season in Sri Lanka is mainly from February to August, March to May in India. The nest is a neat cup bound with cobwebs and lined with fine grass. Mosses cover the nest and this is placed on the horizontal surface of a dry branch, often close to the tip in dead or leafless tree and appears like a knot in the wood. The usual clutch is 2 or 3 eggs which are pale greenish white and blotched with black and grey. The bird sitting at the nest can be easily mistaken to be merely perching. Both males and females incubate. The chicks at nest stay still with eyes closed and face the center of the nest while holding their bills high giving the appearance of a broken branch.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 05:12:00 +0000