The Sri Lanka whistling thrush (''Myophonus blighi'') is a

whistling thrush The whistling thrushes comprise a genus ''Myophonus'' (''Myiophoneus'') of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. They are all medium-sized mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds. They are all brightly coloured species found in India an ...

in the family Muscicapidae. It is a resident

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 ...

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 ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. It is found in the highlands of Sri Lanka in jungle or other dense forest near water. It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of

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 ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

earthworm An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. Th ...

s and berries. It lays one or two

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 ...

in a neat cup-shaped

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 ...

in a bush or on a ledge near water. It does not form flocks, although several birds may be loosely associated in suitable habitat. This is a small whistling thrush, at only 20 cm. Adult males are dark blue with a darker head and back. There are bright blue patches on the shoulders, supercilia and forehead. The female is brown above and chestnut below, but has a bright blue shoulder patch like the male. The male sings its simple whistling song from trees, usually in deep cover. This is a notoriously difficult species to see, even when the males are singing in the breeding season, which starts in February. It is very shy, scarce, localised and declining due to habitat loss. Perhaps the best chance is at dawn at

Horton Plains National Park Horton Plains National Park ( si, හෝර්ටන් තැන්න ජාතික උද්‍යානය, Hortan Thanna Jathika Udyanaya) is a national park in the central highlands of Sri Lanka that was designated in 1988. It is locate ...

2000m up in the highlands of Sri Lanka and at a site near the Haggala Botanical Gardens close to Nuwara Eliya town. Flickr - Rainbirder - Ceylon Whistling-thrush (Myophonus blighi)

Flickr - Rainbirder - Ceylon Whistling-thrush (Myophonus blighi)

In culture

, this bird is known as ''Lanka Arangaya'' in the

Sinhala language Sinhala ( ; , ''siṁhala'', ), sometimes called Sinhalese (), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 milli ...

. The Whistling-thrush appears in a 75c

n postal stamp.

References

External links

Sri Lanka Whistling ThrushSri Lanka Whistling Thrush 2Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush 3
*''Birds of India'' by Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp, *''Thrushes'' by Clement and Hathaway, {{Taxonbar, from=Q605496 Sri Lanka whistling thrush Birds of Sri Lanka Endemic birds of Sri Lanka Sri Lanka whistling thrush