Asian Paradise-flycatcher

Latin Name: 
Terpsiphone paradisi
Size: 
50cm including tail-streamers
Description: 

Glossy blue-black head, crest and throat; black in wings; silvery-white body, long tail-streamers. In rufous phase white parts replaced by rufous chestnut. Female and young male: 20cm. No tail-streamers; shorter crest; rufous above; ashy-grey throat and nuchal collar; whitish below. Solitary or pairs; makes short sallies; flits through trees, the tail-streamers floating; strictly arboreal, sometimes descending into taller bushes; cheerful disposition.

Habitat: 
light forests, gardens, open country.
Food: 
insects, spiders
Distribution: 
Himalaya, foothills to about 1,800m, rarely 2,500m; N India, south to Bharatpur; absent in a broad belt across Gangetic plain; widespread in peninsular India.
Call: 
Call Description: 
sharp, grating chwae or chchwae… call; melodious warbling song and display of breeding male.
National Status: