Large-billed blue-flycatcher

Cyornis caerulatus

SUBFAMILY

Muscicapinae

TAXONOMY

Cyornis caerulatus Bonaparte, 1857.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

French: Bobemouche à grand bec; German: Breitschnabel-Blauschnäpper; Spanish: Niltava Picuda.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The body length is about 5.5 in (14 cm). The sexes are colored differently. The male has a dark-blue back, tail, and head, and an orange belly and throat. The female is brown above with a blue tail and rump.

DISTRIBUTION

A rare, endemic, nonmigratory species that only occurs on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

HABITAT

Inhabits humid lowland and mid-slope, evergreen, tropical forest. It occurs in densely vegetated habitats within primary, mature secondary, and selectively logged forest.

BEHAVIOR

A nonmigratory species. Pairs of breeding birds defend a territory.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Searches from a perch for flying insects in middle and upper parts of the canopy.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Builds a cup-shaped nest in a relatively tall tree.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Vulnerable. An increasingly rare and declining species because much of its habitat has been lost to the development of subsistence agriculture, commercial plantations, and logging. Some of its breeding habitat occurs in various protected areas, but these places are still being subjected to commercial logging. Much of its habitat has been degraded by extensive, illegal fires started to clear the natural forest for agricultural use. Areas of its critical breeding habitat must be protected.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

None known, except for the economic benefits of birdwatching.