The Bornean treepie (''Dendrocitta cinerascens'') is a

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 ...

belonging to the

treepie The treepies (known also as crypsirinines from the subfamily's name, ''Crypsirininae'') comprise four closely related genera (''Dendrocitta, Crypsirina, Temnurus'' and ''Platysmurus'') of long-tailed passerine birds in the family Corvidae. There ...

s genus, ''

Dendrocitta ''Dendrocitta'' is a genus of long-tailed passerine birds in the crow and jay family, Corvidae. They are resident in tropical South and Southeast Asia. The generic name is derived from the Greek words ''dendron'', meaning "tree," and ''kitta'', m ...

'', of in the

crow A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifical ...

family,

Corvidae Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers. In colloquial English, they are known as the crow family or corvids. Currently, 13 ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the island 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 ...

. It is sometimes treated as a

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 ...

of the

Sumatran treepie The Sumatran treepie or Sunda treepie (''Dendrocitta occipitalis'') is a species of bird in the family Corvidae. It is endemic to the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Its natural habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array o ...

(''D. occipitalis'').

Description

It is a fairly large bird, 40 centimetres in length, including a long graduated tail, broad rounded wings and short weak legs. The underparts are pinkish-brown. The head is also pinkish-brown with a pale silver crown and a dark stripe over the eye and across the forehead. The back is greyish and the rump is pale. The wings are black with a white patch and the tail is grey with black tips to the feathers. The

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

and legs are grey-black and the eyes are reddish. The Sumatran treepie differs in having a pale brown back, a dark brown head with a white nape and a thinner bill. The Bornean treepie is a noisy bird with a variety of loud, explosive calls including a bell-like whistle and various grunting and chattering calls. It is able to mimic the calls of other birds.

Ecology

It is fairly common in most mountain ranges in the northern and central parts of Borneo. It mainly occurs between 300 and 2,800 metres above sea-level, being most common in valleys and foothills at the lower end of that range. It inhabits

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' ...

, forest edge,

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

thickets and

scrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, Herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or ...

and is sometimes seen in cultivated areas. It forages in the tree canopy, alone or in small groups, searching for small

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

s and large

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s such as

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

s and

cockroach Cockroaches (or roaches) are a paraphyletic group of insects belonging to Blattodea, containing all members of the group except termites. About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are well-known as ...

es. It can become tame, visiting villages to feed on scraps. Little is known about its breeding habits. The

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materia ...

is shallow, built of fine twigs and placed in a low tree. The

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

are greenish-white with brown markings concentrated in a ring at the wider end.

References

*Davison, G. W. H. & Chew Yen Fook (1996) ''A Photographic Guide to Birds of Borneo'', New Holland, London. *MacKinnon, John & Phillipps, Karen (1993) ''A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Bali'', Oxford University Press, Oxford. *Madge, Steve & Burn, Hilary (1993) ''Crows and Jays'', Christopher Helm, London. *Strange, Morten (2001) ''A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Indonesia'', Christopher Helm, London.

External links

Oriental Bird Images: Bornean treepie ''Dendrocitta cinerascens''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q766640 Dendrocitta Endemic birds of Borneo Birds described in 1879