The blue-wattled bulbul (''Brachypodius nieuwenhuisii'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of songbird in the

bulbul The bulbuls are members of a family, Pycnonotidae, of medium-sized passerine songbirds, which also includes greenbuls, brownbuls, leafloves, and bristlebills. The family is distributed across most of Africa and into the Middle East, tropical As ...

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s. The specific epithet commemorates Dutch explorer

Anton Willem Nieuwenhuis __NOTOC__ Anton Willem Nieuwenhuis (22 May 1864 – 21 September 1953) was a Dutch explorer and physician who travelled extensively in central Borneo in the 1890s, recording valuable ethnographic information about the Dayak people and making b ...

. The bird is endemic to the islands of

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

and

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

is subtropical or tropical moist lowland

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The status of this rarely seen bird is not known, primarily because it is not clear whether it is in fact a distinct species, or a natural

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

between the

black-headed bulbul The black-headed bulbul (''Brachypodius melanocephalos'') is a member of the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is found in forests in south-eastern Asia. Taxonomy and systematics The black-headed bulbul was originally described in the genus ''T ...

and the

grey-bellied bulbul The grey-bellied bulbul (''Ixodia cyaniventris'') is a species of songbird in the bulbul family. It is found on the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threatened by ...

or other closely related bulbul. Alternate names for the blue-wattled bulbul include the Malaysian wattled bulbul, Nieuwenhuis's bulbul and wattled bulbul.

Subspecies

Two

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

are recognized: * ''B. n. inexspectatus'' - (

Chasen ChaSen is a morphological parser for the Japanese language. This tool for analyzing morphemes was developed at the Matsumoto laboratory, Nara Institute of Science and Technology. See also * MeCab MeCab is an open-source text segmentation lib ...

, 1939): found on Sumatra * ''B. n. nieuwenhuisii'' - ( Finsch, 1901): found on Borneo

Status

It may be threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

but is only known from two specimens collected in 1900 and 1937, and few observations. Five sightings of the blue-wattled bulbul were recorded in Batu Apoi Forest Reserve in 1992.

References

blue-wattled bulbul Birds of Brunei Birds of Malesia Controversial bird taxa blue-wattled bulbul Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{Pycnonotidae-stub