The cerulean cuckooshrike (''Coracina temminckii'') is a species of

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 ...

in the family Campephagidae. It is

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 ...

to the island of

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are

subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally found in large, discont ...

and subtropical or tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

. Other common names for this bird include the Sulawesi cuckooshrike, the Celebes cuckooshrike and Temminck's cuckooshrike.

Taxonomy

The cerulean cuckooshrike was first described by the German naturalist

Salomon Müller Salomon Müller (7 April 1804 – 29 December 1864) was a German naturalist. He was born in Heidelberg, and died in Freiburg im Breisgau. Müller was the son of a saddler in Heidelberg. Along with Heinrich Boie and Heinrich Christian Macklot, he ...

in 1843. The specific name honours the Dutch zoologist and ornithologist

Coenraad Jacob Temminck Coenraad Jacob Temminck (; 31 March 1778 – 30 January 1858) was a Dutch people, Dutch Aristocracy (class), aristocrat, Zoology, zoologist and museum director. Biography Coenraad Jacob Temminck was born on 31 March 1778 in Amsterdam in the Dut ...

, the director of the National Natural History Museum at Leiden who had sent Müller to the East Indies to collect specimens. 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 recognised; ''C. t. temminckii'' from the northern peninsula of Sulawesi, ''C. t. rileyi'' from central and southeastern Sulawesi and ''C. t. tonkeana'' from eastern Sulawesi.

Description

The adult cerulean cuckooshrike is a distinctive bird and is about long. The male is greyish-blue, tinged with cobalt blue on wings and tail.

Biology

The cerulean cuckooshrike inhabits

primary forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...

and mature secondary forest up to an altitude of about . It often forms small groups and is presumed to feed on insects. Little is known of its breeding habits but juveniles have been seen in October. One of the places where this bird can be seen is the

Gunung Ambang Nature Reserve Gunung Ambang Nature Reserve is a preserved area in the north of the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is in a mountainous, little-explored region and contains a large number of indigenous plants and animals. Geography The Gunung Ambang Nature R ...

Status

The cerulean cuckooshrike is common in suitable habitats over a large part of central Sulawesi but rather less common in the north and east of the island. The population appears to be stable, and despite its restricted range, the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

lists the bird as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1588964

cerulean cuckooshrike The cerulean cuckooshrike (''Coracina temminckii'') is a species of bird in the family Campephagidae. It is endemic to the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical ...

Endemic birds of Sulawesi Taxa named by Salomon Müller

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot