Alternative name: Yellow-throated Broadbill
- Psarisomus dalhousiae
Identification
23 - 26cm (10 inches), weighs between 50 and 60 grams.
A distinctive, colourful bird with a long tail:
- Black cap with blue crown patch
- Yellow spot on nape side (whitish in psittacinus)
- Bright yellow face, throat and almost complete collar (collar white in psittacinus)
- Green upperparts
- Black flight feathers, basal two-thirds blue
- Blue, long and graduated tail, black undertail
- Paler green underparts, often with blue tinge, turquoise in some areas
- Blue underwing with prominent white patch on flight-feathers
Sexes similar. Juveniles have a green crown, pale yellow on lores and behind ear-coverts and a greenish-yellow chin and throat.
Distribution
Found from the Himalayas east to Burma, southern China, Indochina, peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and northern Borneo.
Formerly common but now becoming uncommon or rare in many parts of its range due habitat destruction. Still found in many national parks and protected areas.
Taxonomy
Subspecies
Five subspecies usually recognized[1]:
- P. d. dalhousiae from the Himalayas in India and Nepal east (possibly in southeast Bangladesh) to Burma and southern China to northern Thailand, Laos and Vietnam
- P. d. cyanicauda in southeast Thailand and Cambodia
- P. d. divinus in southern Vietnam
- P. d. psittacinus in peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra
- P. d. borneensis on northern Borneo
The variation in the accepted races is complex and unclear. Further taxonomic studies are required.
Habitat
Found in different types of forests, including primary and secondary evergreen forest, mixed deciduous forest and in bamboo dominated areas. Prefers forested ravines in India.
Occurs in most of its range above 600m, up to 2500 in Sumatra.
Behaviour
Diet
Feeds almost exclusively on insects.
Captures insects sallying from perches and gleaning them from foliage.
Outside breeding period in noisy groups of up to 15 birds, sometimes more. Joins occasionally mixed-species flocks.
Breeding
Breeding season differs through range (March to August in India, February to May in peninsular Malaysia, March to July in Indochina). Its nest is pear shaped with a long tail, made of creeper stems and tendrils, fine roots, dead leaves, palm fibre and other material. It is suspended from a branch, up to 30m above the ground but usually lower. 4–8 eggs are laid and are incubated by both sexes; both sexes also help to feed the young.
Movements
A resident species. Some altitudinal migration recorded in the Himalayas.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2015. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2015, with updates to August 2015. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Del Hoyo, J, A Elliot, and D Christie, eds. 2003. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 8: Broadbills to Tapaculos. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8487334504
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Long-tailed Broadbill. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 5 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Long-tailed_Broadbill
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
