Birds Thru My Eyes : MALAYSIA: Blue-and-white Flycatcher

Saturday 23 July 2016

Blue-and-white Flycatcher

Order - Passeriformes
Family - Muscicapidae (Old World Flycatchers and Chats)

Blue-and-white Flycatcher

Cyanoptila cyanomelana

白腹蓝鹟 (bái-fù lán-wēng) / 白腹蓝姬鹟 (bái-fù lán-jī-wēng)

Malay : Sambar-Berlau Rengkung Hitam

Japanese : オオルリ (ō ruri) / ルリ (ruri) / ルリチョウ (ruri-chō)

Kanji 日語漢字 : 大琉璃 / 大瑠璃 / 琉璃 / 琉璃鳥 / 瑠璃 / 瑠璃鳥

Taxonomy update for 2014

Blue-and-white Flycatcher (Cyanoptila cyanomelana) is split into two species, following Leader and Carey (2012): Blue-and-white Flycatcher (Cyanoptila cyanomelana), which includes cyanomelana and a newly added subspecies, intermedia; and Zappey’s Flycatcher (Cyanoptila cumatilis). Zappey’s Flycatcher is quite rare and poorly known, so most eBird records were assumed to pertain to Blue-and-white Flycatcher unless specifically noted as Zappey’s. If you have seen Zappey’s Flycatcher, or have seen breeding birds of this complex in the range of Zappey’s (central China from Shaanxi east to Beijing, and south to northwest Hubei), please do update your eBird records accordingly and be sure to add some notes about how the identification was made. The wintering grounds and migration route of Zappey’s remain poorly known, so records outside of the breeding season would be of particular interest and it would be especially important to add documentation on those records. :

- Blue-and-white Flycatcher (Cyanoptila cyanomelana)
- Zappey’s Flycatcher (Cyanoptila cumatilis)

Size : 16–17 cm; mean 25 g

Subspecies and Distribution

Cyanoptila cyanomelana intermedia (Weigold, 1922)

– NE China (Heilongjiang S to E Hebei), S Russian Far East and Korea; non-breeding in Taiwan, Hainan, SE Asia, Philippines and Greater Sundas.
Cyanoptila cyanomelana cyanomelana (Temminck, 1829)

– S Kuril Is and Japan (South from Hokkaido); non-breeding Taiwan, SE China (Hainan), Indochina, Philippines and Greater Sundas, possibly N Sulawesi.