Biology:White-crowned shama

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Short description: Species of bird

White-crowned shama
In Sabah, Malaysia
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Muscicapidae
Genus: Copsychus
Species:
C. stricklandii
Binomial name
Copsychus stricklandii
Motley & Dillwyn, 1855

The white-crowned shama (Copsychus stricklandii) is a medium sized passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It is endemic to the Southeast Asian island of Borneo.[1] The Maratua shama was formerly treated as a subspecies.

Taxonomy

It is closely related to the white-rumped shama (Copsychus malabaricus), and has in the past been sometimes considered a subspecies of that species.[2] The Maratua shama was formerly treated as a subspecies but is now treated as a separate species based on the differences in morphology and mitochondrial DNA sequences.[3][4] The white-crowned shama is now monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.[3]

The specific name was bestowed in honour of Hugh Edwin Strickland[5]

Description

The white-crowned shama is about 21–28 cm (8.3–11.0 in) in length (including a 7 cm (2.8 in) tail in adult males) and 31–42 g (1.1–1.5 oz) in weight. Mainly blue-black upperparts contrast with orange-rufous underparts. It has a white rump and black throat. It is largely similar in appearance to the white-rumped shama subspecies C. m. suavis, which replaces it in southern and western Borneo, and hybridises with it where the ranges meet.[6] It differs in having a white, rather than black, crown. The distinctive Maratua form C. s. barbouri is about 20% longer than the nominate, and has an all-black tail, rather than white outer rectrices.[1]

Aviculture

White-crowned shamas are bred by local aviculturists in Borneo as cage-birds valued for their singing ability. They continue to be trapped as it is believed that wild-caught young birds are stronger, and better songsters, than those bred in captivity.[1]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Phillipps, Quentin; Phillipps, Karen (2011). Phillipps' Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo. Oxford, UK: John Beaufoy Publishing. ISBN 978-1-906780-56-2. 
  2. "White-rumped Shama". Species factsheet. BirdLife International. 2013. http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=32266. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds (August 2024). "Chats, Old World flycatchers". IOC World Bird List Version 14.2. International Ornithologists' Union. https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/chats/. 
  4. Chua, V.; Phillipps, Q.; Lim, H.; Taylor, S.; Gawin, D.; Abdul Rahman, M.; Moyle, R.; Sheldon, F. (2015). "Phylogeography of three endemic birds of Maratua Island, a potential archive of Bornean biogeography". The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 63: 259-269. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278027880. 
  5. "Three Men and a Bird". Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol.86, Part 1, pp.113-119 (June 2013). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265885498_Three_Men_and_a_Bird_-_Motley_Dillwyn_Stickland_and_Copsychus_stricklandii_-_and_an_Introduction_to_Bornean_Nature_for_Alfred_Russel_Wallace. 
  6. "White-rumped Shama". HBW Alive. Lynx Editions. http://www.hbw.com/species/white-rumped-shama-copsychus-malabaricus. 

Wikidata ☰ Q2709265 entry