Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike

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on Banyan Ficus benghalensis at Jayanti in Buxa Tiger Reserve in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India.

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Campephagidae
Genus:	Coracina
Species:	C. melaschistos

Binomial name

Coracina melaschistos
(Hodgson, 1836)

The Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike or Smaller Grey Cuckoo-Shrike (Coracina melaschistos) is a species of cuckooshrike found in South to Southeast Asia.

1 Distribution
2 Description
3 References
4 Gallery

[edit] Distribution

It is distributed from Northeast Pakistan through the lower Himalayan region (Uttaranchal, Nepal, Arunachal Pradesh and into the hills of NE Myanmar continuing to China and Southeast Asia. It winters in the foothills, occasionally longer distances (e.g. Kerala).

Habitat: open forest, groves, singly or in pairs.

[edit] Description

at Jayanti in Buxa Tiger Reserve in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India.

A medium sized, dark cuckoo-shrike with unbarred, grey underparts.

Male: dark grey above; contrasting black wings and tail. Wide white feather tips on underside of tail.
Female: Palers with faint barring on underside^[2]

Call: Loud twit twit to we, descending in scale.

Diet: mainly invertebrates.

Nests in tree.

[edit] References

^ BirdLife International (2004). Coracina melaschistos. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
^ Grewal, Bikram; Bill Harvey and Otto Pfister (2002). Photographic guide to birds of India. Periplus editions / Princeton University Press. p. 257.