Common Woodshrike
Tephrodornis pondicerianus
Jungles all over India
Today we return again to the neighbouring forests of Zaheerabad where I had documented, on earlier trips, numerous birds and their behaviour. The blog today is about one of them and an often taken for granted bird because it is so commonly seen - the Common Woodshrike. The Common Woodshrike (Tephrodornis pondicerianus) is a species of bird found in Asia, now usually considered a member of the family Vangidae. It is small and ashy brown with a dark cheek patch and a broad white brow. It is found across Asia mainly in thin forest and scrub habitats where they hunt insects, often joining other insectivorous birds. The form found in Sri Lanka which was treated as a subspecies is now usually considered a separate species, the Sri Lanka woodshrike.
The family Vangidae (from vanga, Malagasy for the hook-billed vanga, Vanga curvirostris) comprises a group of often shrike-like medium-sized birds distributed from Asia to Africa, including the vangas of Madagascar to which the family owes its name. Many species in this family were previously classified elsewhere in other families. Recent molecular techniques made it possible to assign these species to Vangidae, thereby solving several taxonomic enigmas. The family contains 40 species divided into 21 genera.
But first about the rural area surrounding the town of Zaheerabad. In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. The word rural is defined as encompassing "...all population, housing, and territory not included within an urban area. What ever is not urban is considered rural."
Typical rural areas have a low population densities and small settlements or villages. Agricultural areas too are commonly categorised as rural, as are other types of area such as forests. Different countries have varying definitions of rural for statistical and administrative purposes.
About a 100 kilometers from the capital city of Hyderabad, Zaheerabad is one such industrial town and Municipal Council in the Sangareddy district of the Indian state of Telangana. It is the base for visitors of ancient sacred religious sites like the Ketaki Sangameshwara Swamy Devasthanam (a temple) at Jharasangam, Siddhhi Vinayaka Temple at Rejinthal and Hazrath Multani Baba Dargah (A dargah is a shrine built over the grave of a revered religious figure, often a Sufi saint or dervish) at Metalkunta.
The Zaheerabad area has many diverse areas for birding and in some instances wildlife watching and observation. In close proximity are the Manjeera Wildlife Sanctuary, Gottamgutta, Karanja Reservoir and the Chandrampally Dam and Chincholi Wildlife Sanctuary just over the border in Karnataka. I have had the good fortune to spend a fair bit of time at all these locations and have obtained some beautiful photos with the help of the Forest Officers and Rangers. Read more about some of the birds found near Zaheerabad.
Some of these locations are home to migrants and seasonal visitors and every experience of seeing a new bird provides a rush that one can only feel by doing something they love. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, bird and wildlife watching is a great form of recreation for people of all ages and always provides an opportunity to learn something new.
Zaheerabad
Being located in the Deccan Plateau in the central stretch, the prosperous state of Telangana has sub-tropical climate & the terrain consists mostly of hills, mountain ranges, and thick dense forests covering an area of 27,292 km². The annual rainfall ranges between 1,100 mm to 1,200 mm and the annual temperature varies from 15 C to 45 C. The state is drained by a number of rivers which include the Godavari and the Krishna.
Telangana is endowed with rich diversity of flora and fauna. It has dense teak forests on the northern part along the banks of river Godavari. As per the Champion & Seth Classification of Forest Types (1968), the forests in Telangana belong to three Forest Type Groups, which are further divided into 12 Forest Types. The State Government has taken up a massive greening programme, 'Telangana Ku Harita Haram' in the State to plant and protect 230 crore seedlings over a period of 4 years. This initiative aims at achieving the twin objectives of increasing the forest cover and reduce pressure on the existing forest resources, through massive community participation by Vana Samrakshna Samithis (VSS) and Eco-Development Committees (EDCs) in Protected Areas and Watershed Development Committees in the Watershed areas. Recorded Forest Area (RFA) in the State is 26,904 km² of which 20,353 km² is Reserved Forest, 5,939 sq km is Protected Forest and 612 km² is Unclassed Forests. In Telangana, during the period 1st January 2015 to 5th February 2019, a total of 9,420 hectares of forest land was diverted for non-forestry purposes under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 (MoEF & CC, 2019). As per the information received from the State during that last two years, 12,730 ha of plantations including avenue plantations in the State.
Three National Parks and nine Wildlife Sanctuaries constitute the Protected Area network of the State covering 5.08% of its geographical area.
Chincholi Wildlife Sanctuary
The Chincholi Wildlife Sanctuary, declared in 2011, is the first dry land Wildlife Sanctuary in South India. It extends over 134.88 km² along the borders of the southern states of Telangana & Karnataka. The forest is rich in its biodiversity with good dry & moist deciduous forest in the core with Acacia and Teak plantations on the fringes. There are a host of medicinal herbs and trees and species like the Red Sanders and Sandal. The Chandrampalli dam and four smaller dams exist at its Centre. The forest is home to a variety of fauna like the Black Buck, Common Fox, Four-horned Antelope, Fruit bat, Hyena, Indian Wolf etc. Over 35 species of birds, including the Black Drongo, White-bellied Drongo, Black-winged Kite, Blossom–headed Parakeet, Blue pigeon, Black-headed Oriole and Grey partridge call this sanctuary their home.
The Lambani Tandas, a protected tribal community, also make this sanctuary their home living in harmony with nature.
Common Woodshrike
The Common Woodshrike (Tephrodornis pondicerianus) is found in Asia and usually considered a member of the family Vangidae. It is small and ashy brown with a dark cheek patch and a broad white brow. It is found across Asia mainly in thin forest and scrub habitats where they hunt insects, often joining other insectivorous birds. The form found in Sri Lanka which was treated as a subspecies is now usually considered a separate species, the Sri Lanka Woodshrike.
The family Vangidae (from vanga, Malagasy for the hook-billed vanga, Vanga curvirostris) comprises a group of often shrike-like medium-sized birds distributed from Asia to Africa, including the vangas of Madagascar to which the family owes its name. Many species in this family were previously classified elsewhere in other families. Recent molecular techniques made it possible to assign these species to Vangidae, thereby solving several taxonomic enigmas. The family contains 40 species divided into 21 genera.
Vangidae belongs to a clade of corvid birds that also includes bushshrikes (Malaconotidae), ioras (Aegithinidae) and the Australian butcherbirds, magpies and currawongs (Cracticidae) and woodswallows (Artamidae), which has been defined as the superfamily Malaconotoidea. They seem closely related to some enigmatic African groups: the helmetshrikes (Prionops) and the shrike-flycatchers (Bias and Megabyas).
It is a medium-sized woodshrike with grayish-brown upperparts, black facial mask, white rump, and gray tail with white outer tail feathers. The bill is strongly hooked and has a dark grayish-brown color. The underparts are white and the bird is similar to the Malabar Woodshrike and Large Woodshrike, but generally found in drier forests; also note the prominent white supercilium. The Common Woodshrike is usually found in dry forested areas and shrublands. Their song starts with a bright, fast-paced and strident “wheeet” - usually two notes, followed by a descending series of shorter notes. The calls vary, but usually sound like isolated fragments of song.
The Common Woodshrike is about 13–18 cm long and weighs between 18–27 grams. The male of the nominate race has brownish-grey upperparts, including wings, with a pronounced whitish supercilium, grey-brown lores, a blackish-brown mask from around the eye to the ear-coverts. The rump feathers with small white tips (variable), black uppertail-coverts, blackish brown rectrices with the outer two pairs white with a terminal blackish spot; the cheeks and chin are white with a white throat and underparts, more pale ashy on breast (tinged pink in fresh plumage). The axillaries and underwing-coverts are ashy grey; the iris a dull yellow; with a dusky brown bill and dusky grey legs. It differs from Tephrodornis virgatus mainly in its smaller size, smaller bill, the presence of the white supercilium and white outer tail. The female is like the male, but with a slightly paler mask. The juvenile has browner upperparts and a spotted whitish buff, especially on the crown and the nape, the upperwing-coverts are broadly tipped whitish buff with pale and dark markings on the tertials, sides of throat and the breast is a mottled dusky brown. The immature like the adult, but not fully described. The race pallidus is paler than the nominate - more ashy grey above and creamy below. The race orientis is darker, dark brown-grey above, with a white rump band, strong white supercilium, darker malar area with a strong brownish tinge below.
The Common Woodshrike was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the flycatchers in the genus Muscicapa and coined the binomial name Muscicapa pondiceriana. Gmelin based his description on the "Le gobe-mouches de Pondichéry" that had been described in 1782 by the French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat. The type locality was restricted from Pondicherry to Chennai by Claud Ticehurst in 1921. The common woodshrike is now one of four species placed in the genus Tephrodornis that was introduced in 1832 by the English naturalist William Swainson. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek tephōdēs meaning "like ashes" or "ash-coloured" with ornis meaning "bird".
Three subspecies are recognised:
T. p. pallidus (Ticehurst, 1920) – Distributed in Pakistan and northwest India
T. p. pondicerianus (Gmelin, JF, 1789) – Distributed from East India to south Laos
T. p. orientis (Deignan, 1948) – Distributed in Cambodia and South Vietnam
The Sri Lanka woodshrike (Tephrodornis affinis) was formerly treated as a subspecies. It was promoted to full species status based on its distinct plumage as well as its calls. Unlike the common woodshrike, the Sri Lanka woodshrike displays strong sexual dimorphism.
Usually found in pairs, they have a loud whistling song made of several notes. The usual call is a plaintive weet-weet followed by a series of quick whi-whi-whi-whee?. They have a loud song consisting of several rapid whistling notes. They feed mainly on insects and sometimes berries by gleaning mostly along branches and leaves within trees but sometimes also make aerial sallies or descend to the ground. They have a habit of adjusting their wings, raising them over the tail shortly after alighting on a perch. They nest in summer before the rainy season, building a cup nest on a bare fork. The nest is made of fibres and bark held by cobwebs and covered with bits of bark and lichen. It is lined with silky plant fibres. Three eggs are the usual clutch. Both parents incubate but it is thought that only the female feeds the young. Young birds are fed on insects and berries. Two broods may be raised in some years.
A species of Haemoproteus was described from a Goan specimen of this species as Haemoproteus tephrodornis by Froilano de Mello in 1935. A spirurid nematode Oxyspirura alii was described and named after S. Mehdi Ali and obtained from within the eye cavity of a common woodshrike specimen from Hyderabad. Ticks of the species Haemaphysalis bispinosa and H. intermedia have been recorded on the species.
The Common Woodshrike is a resident bird which frequents open dipterocarp forest, dry deciduous forest, second growth, bamboo forest, thorn scrub, Olea cuspidata (wild olive) scrub forest in Pakistan, woodland, orchards, Eucalyptus plantations, gardens, hedgerows, and dry open country with scattered trees, e.g. of Prosopis spicigera (commonly known as Khejri or Jamni). Generally replaces T. virgatus in dry country, in areas where the two species overlap. And lowlands, mainly below 400 m, ascending locally to 1600 m.
The Common Woodshrike takes insects, chiefly beetles (Coleoptera), adult and larval lepidopterans, and orthopterans (grasshoppers, praying mantises), hymenopterans (bees and wasps) and hemipterans (bugs and cicadas); also spiders (Arachnida), and some fruit. They occur in pairs and small groups of 5–8 individuals, frequently joining mixed-species foraging parties, especially those with minivets (Pericrocotus), fantails (Rhipidura) and sometimes with T. virgatus. They forage in treetops, searching diligently in bark crevices and beneath leaves also sallies for flying insects, and sometimes takes prey on the ground.
The breeding season is mainly between February and July, but January through September (especially March–May) in India. It is monogamous the nest is built by both sexes over 4–5 days. It is a small, neat, shallow cup of moss, lichen, bark or roots, bound with cobweb, lined with hair or vegetable down, placed in the horizontal fork of a tree branch (e.g. Psidium guajava, Tectona) 2–9 m above ground, typically below 6 m, sometimes concealed within dense foliage.
The Common Woodshrike is classified as Least Concern as it is not globally threatened. It is fairly common to common throughout its range. Widespread and common over most of Indian Subcontinent; locally fairly common in Nepal. Common in SE Asia.
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