Whistling thrush

The whistling thrushes comprise a genus Myophonus (Myiophoneus[1]) of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.

Whistling thrush
Taiwan whistling thrush (Myophonus insularis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Muscicapidae
Subfamily:	Saxicolinae
Genus:	Myophonus Temminck, 1822
Species
See text

They are all medium-sized mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds. They are all brightly coloured species found in India and southeast Asia. The male is usually blue, and the females are either similar to the male or brown. The brighter blue patches found on the shoulders and sometimes the head, of whistling thrushes, uniquely for a passerine, reflect strongly in the ultraviolet.[2]

Taxonomy

As the English name suggests, the genus was at one time placed in the thrush family Turdidae but in 2010 two separate molecular phylogenetic studies found that members of the genus were more closely related to species in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.[3][4]

The genus includes nine species several of which have ranges that are restricted to islands or peninsulas:[5]

Image	Scientific name	Common Name	Distribution
	Sri Lanka whistling thrush	Myophonus blighi	found on Sri Lanka
	Shiny whistling thrush	Myophonus melanurus	Sumatra
	Javan whistling thrush	Myophonus glaucinus	Java
	Bornean whistling thrush	Myophonus borneensis	Borneo
	Brown-winged whistling thrush	Myophonus castaneus	Sumatra
	Malayan whistling thrush	Myophonus robinsoni	peninsular Malaysia
	Malabar whistling thrush	Myophonus horsfieldii	peninsular India
	Taiwan whistling thrush or Taiwan whistling-thrush	Myophonus insularis	Taiwan
	Blue whistling thrush	Myophonus caeruleus	from Central Asia east to China and south to the Sundas

Javan, Bornean and brown-winged were formerly lumped as the Sunda whistling thrush, but were split in 2004.[6]

Habits

Shape of bill M. caeruleus

Whistling thrushes are mostly seen in hilly areas except during winter when they may descend to streams near the plains. They specialize in feeding on snails and their strong hooked bills are used to deal with them. They may choose a particular rock on which they crack the shells.[7]

The nests are usually in crevices of rocks and boulders close to water. The cup nests have moss and twigs and is lined with roots and leaves. The eggs are usually three and sometimes four, elongate with a gray ground colour and marked with speckles.[7]

References

1. Delacour 1942 (Auk 146-264) writes "the proper spelling is Myiophoneus Temminck and Laugier, 1822 Myophonus T. and L., 1822 is an orthographic error, as well as Myophoneus in their tables, x859, while Myiophonus Agassiz, 1846, is an unnecessary emendation."
2. Staffan Andersson (1996). "Bright Ultraviolet Colouration in the Asian Whistling-Thrushes (Myiophonus spp.)". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 263 (1372): 843–848. doi:10.1098/rspb.1996.0124.
3. Sangster, G.; Alström, P.; Forsmark, E.; Olsson, U. (2010). "Multi-locus phylogenetic analysis of Old World chats and flycatchers reveals extensive paraphyly at family, subfamily and genus level (Aves: Muscicapidae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 57 (1): 380–392. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2010.07.008. PMID 20656044.
4. Zuccon, D.; Ericson, P.G.P. (2010). "A multi-gene phylogeny disentangles the chat-flycatcher complex (Aves: Muscicapidae)". Zoologica Scripta. 39 (3): 213–224. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2010.00423.x.
5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David (eds.). "Chats, Old World flycatchers". World Bird List Version 6.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
6. Collar, N.J. (2004). "Species limits in some Indonesian thrushes" (PDF). Forktail. 20: 71–87.
7. Delacour, J. (1942). "The Whistling Thrushes (genus Myiophoneus)" (PDF). Auk. 59 (2): 246–264. doi:10.2307/4079555. JSTOR 4079555.

Further reading

• Thrushes by Clement and Hathaway, ISBN 0-7136-3940-7