Sirkeer Malkoha

Latin Name:

Taccocua leschenaultii

Category:

Size:

45cm

Description:

Sexes alike. Olivebrown plumage; long, graduated tail, with broad white tips to blackish outer feathers diagnostic in flight; cherryred beak, with yellow tip. Solitary or in pairs; sometimes 4 or 5 birds in the neighbourhood; move mostly on ground, in dense growth; may clamber out on some bush tops or low trees; flight weak and short

Habitat:

open jungle, scrub, ravines, dense growth around habitation. Runs low and rat-like when disturbed. Builds its own nest. Endemic resident of thorn scrub and semi-desert regions.

Food:

insects, fallen fruit, lizards.

Distribution:

most of subcontinent, up to about 1,800m in the Himalaya; absent in NW India and Kashmir.