The black-winged cuckooshrike (''Lalage melaschistos''), also known as lesser grey cuckooshrike or dark grey cuckooshrike, is a species of cuckooshrike found in

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

to Southeast Asia. Despite the name, they (

cuckooshrikes The cuckooshrikes and allies in the family Campephagidae are small to medium-sized passerine bird species found in the subtropical and tropical Africa, Asia and Australasia. The 93 species are divided into 11 genera. The woodshrikes (''Tephrodorn ...

) are unrelated to

shrikes Shrikes () are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of 34 species in four genera. The family name, and that of the largest genus, '' Lanius'', is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also kn ...

or cuckoos. They have broad based bills with grey upper parts, black wings, white vent, graduated white-tipped tails, black bills and legs. Females are overall lighter in all taxa.

Distribution

They breed in summer in mountains from 300–2450 meters and migrate altitudinally or south in winter. It is distributed from Northeast Pakistan through the lower Himalayan region ( Uttarakhand, Nepal, Arunachal Pradesh and into the hills of NE

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

continuing to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and Southeast Asia. It winters in the foothills, occasionally longer distances south west to northern parts of peninsular India and east to Orissa, Bengal and Bangladesh, but may travel as far south as Kerala).Taylor, B. (2005). Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike (Coracina melaschistos). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.) (2014). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/57880 on 7 March 2015). Habitat: Breeds in deciduous and broad-leaved evergreen forest but winters in open forest, groves, singly or in pairs. They are also known to join mixed feeding parties. Their diet consists mainly of caterpillars, beetles and other bugs.

Description

Black-winged Cuckooshrike female Nabarun Sadhya

A medium-sized, dark cuckoo-shrike with unbarred, grey underparts. :Male: dark grey above; contrasting black wings and tail. Wide white feather tips on underside of tail. :Female: Palers with faint barring on underside :Call: Loud ''twit twit to we'', descending in scale. :Diet: mainly invertebrates. :Nests in tree.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q1038066, from2=Q28836456

black-winged cuckooshrike The black-winged cuckooshrike (''Lalage melaschistos''), also known as lesser grey cuckooshrike or dark grey cuckooshrike, is a species of cuckooshrike found in South to Southeast Asia. Despite the name, they ( cuckooshrikes) are unrelated to shr ...

Birds of China Birds of the Himalayas Birds of Southeast Asia