Asian Paradise-Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi)

Family: MUSCICAPIDAE

A very large and varied Old World family of smaller insectivorous birds. Fly-catchers have rounded heads and small, broad-based, pointed bills. The wide gape and fringe of stiff rictal bristles help them to snap up small insects. They have short, slender legs and small feet.

Males of most flycatchers are brightly coloured but most females are drab. They regularly join mixed-species flocks. The nests are neat, cup-shaped structures lined with hair and decorated with moss.

A total of 43 species occur in the Greater Sundas, some of which are winter visitors. Flycatchers can be divided into 3 main groups.

• Typical Flycatchers: have an upright posture and tend to hawk after insects from a perch.
• Fantail Flycatchers: restless, active birds which tend to droop the wings and twitch their tails from side to side, or flick tails open as a raised fan.
• Monarch Flycatchers: more active searchers, picking insects off branches and trunks of trees. Include the spectacular, long-tailed paradise flycatchers.

On the basis of DNA-hybridization studies, Sibley and Monroe (1990) reassigned the last two groups to drongos within the enlarged crow family Corvidae.

Description: Medium-sized (22 cm, plus 20 cm tail on male) sexually dimorphic, glossy black-headed flycatcher with prominent crest. Male is notable with greatly elongated central pair of tail feathers, up to 25 cm beyond rest of tail. Male has two colour phases, both quite different from Japanese Paradise Flycatcher. In one phase, upperparts white streaked with black shafts and underparts pure white; wings black. In other phase, upperparts rufous, underparts greyish. Female is rufous brown with glossy black head.

Iris - brown; bare skin around eye - blue; bill - blue with black tip; feet - blue.

Voice: Ringing whistled song and very loud chee-tew contact call, similar to but stronger than calls of Black-naped Monarch.

Distribution and status: On Borneo this is a fairly common bird of lowland forest, locally up to 1200 m.

Habits: The white male is conspicuous in flight. Generally hunts from a perch in the lower half of the canopy, often within mixed-species flocks.