Black bulbul
| Black bulbul | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Pycnonotidae |
| Genus: | Hypsipetes |
| Species: | H. leucocephalus |
| Binomial name | |
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Hypsipetes leucocephalus Gmelin, 1789 |
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| Rough distribution of South Asian species within the complex | |
The black bulbul (Hypsipetes leucocephalus), also known as the Himalayan black bulbul or Asian black bulbul, is a member of the bulbul family of passerine birds. It is found in southern Asia from India east to southern China. It is the type species of the genus Hypsipetes, established by Nicholas Aylward Vigors in the early 1830s. There are a number of subspecies across Asia, mostly varying in the shade of the body plumage (ranging from grey to black), and some also occur in white-headed morphs (as also suggested by its specific epithet leucocephalus, literally "white head"). The legs and bill are always rich orange-red. The related form from the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka is often treated as a separated species, the square-tailed bulbul (Hypsipetes ganeesa).
The black bulbul is 24–25 cm in length, with a long tail. The body plumage ranges from slate grey to shimmering black, depending on the race. The beak, legs, and feet are all orange and the head has a black fluffy crest. Sexes are similar in plumage, but young birds lack the crest, have whitish underparts with a grey breast band, and have a brown tint to the upperparts. They have a black streak behind the eye and on the ear coverts.
The taxonomy is complex with this and several other currently recognized species earlier treated as subspecies of Hypsipetes madagascariensis. Within Asia, ganeesa has often been considered as a subspecies of H. leucocephalus, but is here treated as a separate species restricted to the Western Ghats (south of somewhere near Bombay ) and Sri Lanka, the square-tailed black bulbul. The subspecies from Sri Lanka humii is then placed under this species.
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Wikipedia