The white-throated fantail (''Rhipidura albicollis'') is a small
passerine bird. It is found in forest, scrub and cultivation across tropical southern Asia from the
Himalayas,
India and
Bangladesh east to
Indonesia. The
white-spotted fantail (''R. albogularis'') until recently was considered a subspecies.
Description
The adult white-throated fantail is about long. It has a dark fan-shaped tail, edged in white, and white supercilium and throat. There is otherwise much variation in plumage between races. Most resemble the Himalayan ''R. a. canescans'' which is mainly slate grey above and below, with a black eye mask, and a white throat and eyebrow.
Local names for the bird in
India include ''Nasoni sorai'' (
Assamese
Assamese may refer to:
* Assamese people, a socio-ethnolinguistic identity of north-eastern India
* People of Assam, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious people of Assam
* Assamese language, one of the easternmost Indo-Aryan language ...
).
Behaviour
The white-throated fantail lays three
eggs in a small cup nest in a tree. It is
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 ...
, and often fans its tail as it moves through the undergrowth.
The eggs are approximately in length. They are white in colour, with a band of brown spots around the middle, closer towards the base of the egg.
Birds use the same song year after year, with progressively small changes, with the result that the song sounds very different after 4–5 years. The male's call is a valuable tool in detection and identification of the bird, which can often be confused with the
white-browed fantail
The white-browed fantail (''Rhipidura aureola'') is a small passerine bird belonging to the family Rhipiduridae.
Description
The adult white-browed fantail is about 18 cm long. It has dark brown upperparts, with white spots on the wings, ...
, ''R. aureola'', where their ranges overlap. ''R. aureola'' has light underparts and prominent spots in two rows on the wings.
Subspecies
According to
IOC there are 9 recognised subspecies.
[Gill F., Donsker D. & Rasmussen P. (Eds.)]
Orioles, drongos, fantails
'' IOC World Bird List (v11.2)''. doi:10.14344/IOC.ML.11.2 In alphabetical order, these are:
* ''R. a. albicollis'' (Vieillot, 1818)
* ''R. a. atrata'' Salvadori, 1879
* ''R. a. canescens'' (Koelz, 1939)
* ''R. a. celsa'' Riley, 1929
* ''R. a. cinerascens'' Delacour, 1927
* ''R. a. kinabalu'' Chasen, 1941
* ''R. a. orissae'' Ripley, 1955
* ''R. a. sarawacensis'' Chasen, 1941
* ''R. a. stanleyi''
Baker
A baker is a tradesperson who bakes and sometimes sells breads and other products made of flour by using an oven or other concentrated heat source. The place where a baker works is called a bakery.
History
Ancient history
Since grains ha ...
, 1916
Gallery
References
* ''Birds of India'' by Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp,
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1591229
white-throated fantail
Birds of the Himalayas
Birds of East India
Birds of South China
Birds of Southeast Asia
white-throated fantail
white-throated fantail