The Japanese paradise flycatcher (''Terpsiphone atrocaudata''), also called the black paradise flycatcher, is a medium-sized

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 ...

native to southeastern Asia. It is a glossy black, chestnut and white bird, slightly smaller than either the

Amur paradise flycatcher The Amur paradise flycatcher (''Terpsiphone incei'') is a bird species in the family Monarchidae. It is native to China, Manchuria and Primorsky Krai in the Russian Far East. It is a winter migrant to Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also s ...

Blyth's paradise flycatcher Blyth's paradise flycatcher (''Terpsiphone affinis''), also called the oriental paradise flycatcher, is a species of bird in the family Monarchidae. It is native from southern China to Sumatra and Melanesia. Formerly, it was considered a subspe ...

, but similar in appearance. Males have exceptionally long tails. Females are generally duller in appearance and have shorter tails. It is a migratory species, breeding in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the far north of the Philippines. Outside the breeding season it migrates to China, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, other parts of the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Sumatra, Indonesia.

Taxonomy and systematics

The Japanese paradise flycatcher was previously classified with the

Old World flycatcher The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, Bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica)'' and Norther ...

family

Muscicapidae The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, Bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica)'' and Norther ...

, but the paradise-flycatchers, monarch flycatchers and Australasian fantails are now normally grouped with the

drongo The drongos are a family, Dicruridae, of passerine birds of the Old World tropics. The 30 species in the family are placed in a single genus, ''Dicrurus''. Drongos are mostly black or dark grey, short-legged birds, with an upright stance when ...

s in the family Dicruridae, which has most of its members in Australasia and tropical southern Asia.

Subspecies

Three

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: * ''T. a. atrocaudata'' - ( Eyton, 1839): Found in central and southern Korea, Japan and Taiwan * ''T. a. illex'' -

Bangs Bang or bangs may refer to: Products * M1922 Bang rifle, a US semi-automatic rifle designed by Søren Hansen Bang * Bang, a List of model car brands, model car brand * Bang (beverage), an energy drink Geography * Bang, Lorestan, a village in I ...

, 1901: Originally described as a separate species. Found on the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonaguni ...

* ''T. a. periophthalmica'' - ( Ogilvie-Grant, 1895): Originally described as a separate species. Found on

Lanyu Island Orchid Island, also known by other names, is a volcanic island off the southeastern coast of Taiwan Island. The island is part of Taiwan. It is separated from the Batanes of the Philippines by the Bashi Channel of the Luzon Strait. It is gove ...

(off of southeast Taiwan) and

Batan Island Batan Island ( ) is the main island of Batanes, an archipelagic province in the Philippines. It is the second largest of the Batanes Islands, the northernmost group of islands in the country. Four of the six municipalities of Batanes are locat ...

(northern Philippines) CallaeopsPeriophthalmicaGronvold

Description

The Japanese paradise flycatcher is similar in appearance to both the

and Blyth's paradise flycatcher, but is slightly smaller. Mature males have a black hood with a purplish-blue gloss which shades into blackish-grey on the chest. The underparts are off-white to white. The mantle, back, wings and rump are plain dark chestnut. The tail has extremely long black central feathers, which are shorter in immature males. Unlike the Asian paradise flycatcher there is no white morph. The female resembles the male but is duller and darker brown on the chestnut areas. It has black legs and feet, a large black eye with a blue eye-ring, and a short blue bill. The song is rendered in Japanese as ''tsuki-hi-hoshi, hoi-hoi-hoi'', which translates to ''Moon-Sun-Stars'' and gives the Japanese name of the bird サンコウチョウ (三光鳥) ''sankōchō'' (literally, bird of three lights, i.e. moon, sun, star, from ''san'' three + ''kō'' lights + ''chō'' bird).

Distribution and habitat

The Japanese paradise flycatcher is mainly migratory and breeds in shady mature deciduous or evergreen broadleaf forest of Japan (southern Honshū, Shikoku, Kyushu and the Nansei Shoto islands), South Korea, Taiwan (including Lanyu island) and the far north Philippines. It is a non-breeding visitor to mainland China, the Russian Far East, Hong Kong, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Sumatra, Indonesia. In Jeju-do of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

Gotjawal Forest Gotjawal Forest is a naturally formed forest located on the middle slopes of Halla Mountain, Jeju Island in South Korea. It covers the rocky area of aā on Jeju Island off the southwestern coast of South Korea. Due to the geographical feature, t ...

, a forest formed on a rocky area of

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

AA Lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or und ...

, is one of the important breeding sites of Japanese paradise flycatcherOh, Hong-shik, Byung-soo Kim, and Wanbyung Kim, 2002
Study on the bird communities of Mt. Halla
Korea Journal of Ornithology, Vol 9, No. 2, pp85-104 A recent survey detected a steep decline in part of the Japanese breeding population which has presumably occurred because of forest loss and degradation in its winter range.

Notes

References

*Brazil, Mark. ''The Birds of East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Russia.'' A & C Black Publishers Ltd., 2009 * ''Sibagu: Bird Names in Oriental Languages'' (http://www.sibagu.com/japan/monarchidae.html) (accessed 24 November 2014) {{Taxonbar, from=Q1074163

Japanese paradise flycatcher The Japanese paradise flycatcher (''Terpsiphone atrocaudata''), also called the black paradise flycatcher, is a medium-sized passerine bird native to southeastern Asia. It is a glossy black, chestnut and white bird, slightly smaller than either t ...

Birds of Japan Birds of Korea Birds of the Ryukyu Islands