Comoro Cuckooshrike - BirdForum Opus

Alternative name Comoros Cuckooshrike

Ceblepyris cucullata

Identification

22-24 cm

Typical male has dark head (including chin and throat), medium dark upperside and white underside.
Female is similar but with grey crown and paler side chin/throat area.
Variant male similar in distribution of colors to female but with dark grey replaced by olive green and white replaced by olive-yellow.

Female of subspecies moheliensis has completely white throat area

Two subspecies are recognized^[1]:

This species and Madagascar Cuckooshrike were previously considered one species, Ashy Cuckooshrike.

Mostly found in native evergreen forest with large trees but may occasionally be found in dryer, more open forest.

Uses both gleaning and sallying to capture insects and other invertebrates, and supplements with some fruit.

Calls are often two syllables long, second lower pitch than the first.

Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2023. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2023. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2024. IOC World Bird List (v 14.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.14.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
del Hoyo, J., N. Collar, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Comoros Cuckooshrike (Coracina cucullata), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.ashcus3.01

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Comoro Cuckooshrike. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 8 December 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Comoro_Cuckooshrike

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1