The large cuckooshrike (''Coracina macei'') is a species of

cuckooshrike 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 ...

found in the

Indian Subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

and depending on the taxonomic treatment used,

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

. The species has had a long and varied taxonomic treatment, being closely related to forms across Southeast Asia, with some authors using the name Indian cuckooshrike (which then refers only to the species that includes the forms ''C. m. macei'' of peninsular India and ''C. m. layardi'' of Sri Lanka). The species and subspecies classifications vary widely across sources and are yet to be resolved unambiguously.

Description

Adult males have a broad and well-marked eye stripe which is pale in females. The throat and breast are grey in males and the abdomen and flanks are finely barred. Females have the throat and breast also with barring which extends further down and lacks the prominent whitish vent of the male. They are mostly

insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were ...

but also feed on figs and forest fruits and usually fly in small groups with a bounding flight just above the forest canopy. The Indian population has a loud call ''klu-eep'' and the birds have a characteristic habit of flicking their closed wings one after the other upon landing on a perch. The same wing movements are also used during courtship.

Taxonomy and systematics

Several subspecies are recognized but there is considerable confusion and the taxonomy of the group is not fully resolved. The IOC classification considers the following subspecies within the species ''macei'': * ''C. m. nipalensis'' (Hodgson, 1836) of the Himalayas (some authors treat this as a subspecies of ''C. javensis'') * ''C. m. macei'' (Lesson, R, 1831) of peninsular India * ''C. m. layardi'' (Blyth, 1866) of Sri Lanka * ''C. m. andamana'' (Neumann, 1915) of the Andaman Islands * ''C. m. rexpineti'' (Swinhoe, 1863) of southeastern China, Taiwan, Laos and Vietnam * ''C. m. larvivora'' (Hartert, 1910) of Hainan (off China) * ''C. m. siamensis'' (Baker, ECS, 1918) of Myanmar and southern China to southern Indochina * ''C. m. larutensis'' (Sharpe, 1887) of the Malay Peninsula (some authors treat this as a subspecies of ''C. javensis'' or as a separate species) The species was for sometime lumped, treated as a subspecies of '' Coracina novaehollandiae'' within the ''caledonica'' superspecies.

Breeding

The species breeds in the dry months of winter. The nest is a shallow saucer placed in the fork of a horizontal branch at some height above the ground. The saucer is made of twigs and grass decorated on the outside with cobwebs and with little lining. The typical clutch is three eggs in peninsular India and two around Bengal.

References

large cuckooshrike The large cuckooshrike (''Coracina macei'') is a species of cuckooshrike found in the Indian Subcontinent and depending on the taxonomic treatment used, Southeast Asia. The species has had a long and varied taxonomic treatment, being closely rela ...

Birds of China Birds of South Asia Birds of Southeast Asia

Taxa named by René Lesson {{Campephagidae-stub