The green broadbill (''Calyptomena viridis'') also known as the lesser green broadbill is a small bird in the

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 ...

Calyptomenidae Calyptomenidae is a family of passerine birds found in Africa, the Malay Peninsula and Borneo. There are six species in two genera. The species in this family were formerly included in the broadbill family Eurylaimidae The Eurylaimidae are a ...

. It was formerly classified in the family

Eurylaimidae The Eurylaimidae are a family of suboscine passerine birds that occur from the eastern Himalayas to Indonesia and the Philippines. The family previously included the sapayoa from the Neotropics, the asities from Madagascar, and the Calyptomeni ...

, a group of closely related birds that share the name "broadbill".

Taxonomy

There are three subspecies recognized: * ''C. v. viridis'' Raffles, 1822 - the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula (Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area ...

, extirpated from

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

* ''C. v. gloriosa'' Deignan, 1947 -

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 ...

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 ...

Nias Nias ( id, Pulau Nias, Nias language: ''Tanö Niha'') (sometimes called Little Sumatra in English) is an island located off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Nias is also the name of the archipelago () of which the island is the centre, ...

, the Lingga Islands, and the Natuna Islands * ''C. v. siberu''

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 ...

& Kloss, 1926 -

Mentawai Islands Mentawai may refer to: * Mentawai Islands * Mentawai Strait * Mentawai people * Mentawai language The Mentawai language is an Austronesian language, spoken by the Mentawai people of the Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Dialects Acco ...

Prior to revisions by the

International Ornithological Congress International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

in 2022, the mainland subspecies went by the name ''caudacuta'', while ''viridis'' referred to the Greater Sundaic subspecies. Based on several previous studies finding problems with this nomenclature, the International Ornithological Congress replaced ''caudacuta'' with ''viridis'', while ''gloriosa'' replaced the former ''viridis''.

Distribution and habitat

The green broadbill is distributed in broadleaved evergreen forests of

, and the

where it frequents lowland and lower montane rainforest.

Description

The bird is about 17 cm long, plumaged in brilliant green with a black ear patch, widely gaped bill, rounded head, short tail and three black bars on each wing. The

beak The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for eating, preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food ...

itself is very weak and almost hidden by the crest above it. Both sexes are similar. The female is duller and has no black markings on its ear patch and

wing coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are sm ...

Behaviour

It is often overlooked, as it sits motionless inside the canopy or just below, quickly flying to a new location if disturbed. Its foliage-green color provides excellent camouflage. It feeds largely on soft

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

s. The broadbill's feeding habits helps to distribute the seeds of the fig around the forest floor. The female usually lays between two and three whitish eggs, and the young fledge after twenty-two to twenty-three days.

Status and conservation

Due to continuing habitat loss, the green broadbill is evaluated as Near Threatened on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

of Threatened Species.

References

* *

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet

Red Data Book
{{Taxonbar, from=Q305351

green broadbill The green broadbill (''Calyptomena viridis'') also known as the lesser green broadbill is a small bird in the family Calyptomenidae. It was formerly classified in the family Eurylaimidae, a group of closely related birds that share the name "br ...

Birds of Malesia

Taxa named by Thomas Stamford Raffles