The Oriental Magpie-Robin (Copsychus saularis) is a small passerine bird.
They are distinctive black and white birds with a long tail that is held upright as they forage on the ground or perch conspicuously.
Magpie Robins breed mainly from March to July in India. Males sing from high perches during courtship. The display of the male involves puffing up the feathers, raising the bill, fanning the tail and strutting.
The diet of Magpie Robins includes mainly insects and other invertebrates
Bird Call: melodious song; a mournful rising whistle and harsh raspy alarm note
I have seen this bird a lot of times. The call is distinctive.
I had a pot filled with water, kept outside my house.
This little creature had once arrived there to drink water, and to my surprise it was building a nest there. There was an electric pole near our house wall. The pole had a box, wherein they were building a nest.
I enjoyed watching both the male and the female build the nest. The female always remained inside.
The male used to gather grass/leaves come near the box and give a call. Only then would the female come out take the leaves/grass and go inside. Another interesting part was during this time in-case there was some other bird approaching that area, the male would again give a different kind of sound or the note was higher. The female would then go in or she would be alerted not to come out.
This was really amazing to watch.
After watching this I was curious to get more information and found that, The female is involved in most of the nest building that happens about a week before the eggs are laid. Four or five eggs are laid in intervals of 24 hours and these are oval and usually pale blue green with brownish speckles which match the color of hay. The eggs are incubated by the female alone for 8 to 14 days. Females spend more effort on feeding the young than males. Males are quite aggressive in the breeding season and will defend their territory and respond to the singing of intruders and even their reflections.Males spend more time on nest defense.
Studies of the bird song show dialects with neighbours varying in their songs. The calls of many other species may be imitated as part of their song. This may indicate that birds disperse and are not philopatric. They appear to use elements of the calls of other birds in their own songs. Females may sing briefly in the presence of male. Apart from their song, they use a range of calls including territorial calls, emergence and roosting calls, threat calls, submissive calls, begging calls and distress calls. The typical mobbing calls is a harsh hissing krshhh.
They are distinctive black and white birds with a long tail that is held upright as they forage on the ground or perch conspicuously.
Magpie Robins breed mainly from March to July in India. Males sing from high perches during courtship. The display of the male involves puffing up the feathers, raising the bill, fanning the tail and strutting.
The diet of Magpie Robins includes mainly insects and other invertebrates
Bird Call: melodious song; a mournful rising whistle and harsh raspy alarm note
I have seen this bird a lot of times. The call is distinctive.
I had a pot filled with water, kept outside my house.
This little creature had once arrived there to drink water, and to my surprise it was building a nest there. There was an electric pole near our house wall. The pole had a box, wherein they were building a nest.
I enjoyed watching both the male and the female build the nest. The female always remained inside.
The male used to gather grass/leaves come near the box and give a call. Only then would the female come out take the leaves/grass and go inside. Another interesting part was during this time in-case there was some other bird approaching that area, the male would again give a different kind of sound or the note was higher. The female would then go in or she would be alerted not to come out.
This was really amazing to watch.
After watching this I was curious to get more information and found that, The female is involved in most of the nest building that happens about a week before the eggs are laid. Four or five eggs are laid in intervals of 24 hours and these are oval and usually pale blue green with brownish speckles which match the color of hay. The eggs are incubated by the female alone for 8 to 14 days. Females spend more effort on feeding the young than males. Males are quite aggressive in the breeding season and will defend their territory and respond to the singing of intruders and even their reflections.Males spend more time on nest defense.
Studies of the bird song show dialects with neighbours varying in their songs. The calls of many other species may be imitated as part of their song. This may indicate that birds disperse and are not philopatric. They appear to use elements of the calls of other birds in their own songs. Females may sing briefly in the presence of male. Apart from their song, they use a range of calls including territorial calls, emergence and roosting calls, threat calls, submissive calls, begging calls and distress calls. The typical mobbing calls is a harsh hissing krshhh. 
No comments:
Post a Comment