Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS

THE SONG BIRDS

THE BULBULS

White-throated Bulbuls

The Pycnonotidce have their center of distribution in southeastern Asia, whence they extend to Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and the Philippines; but they are by no means unrepresented in the Ethiopian region, which possesses exclusively half a dozen or more of the thirty-five or forty genera and nearly a hundred of the two hundred and fifty species. In the large genus Criniger (which, by the way, has been recently subdivided), or the White-throated Bulbuls, the head is ornamented by a long, pointed crest and a number of very long”hairs”which spring from the nape, while the plumage is very soft and fluffy. One of the best-known is the Himalayan White-throated Bulbul (C. Jlaveolus) of the eastern Himalayas, which has the upper parts olive-green, the crest olive-brown, each feather being edged with olive-green, the throat and chin white, and the under parts bright yellow. They are sociable birds, frequenting the forests in flocks of six to a dozen, and are very noisy, their notes being harsh and constantly repeated.
One of the most remarkable members of the group is the Hairy-backed Bulbul (Tricholestes criniger) of Tenasserim, the Malay Peninsula, and large islands to the southward, which is known by the numerous long hairs which spring from the back; it is mainly olive-green above with brownish wings and yellow under parts. It is a very tame bird, frequenting brushwood in small parties and subsisting mainly on insects. Passing over the so-called Black Bulbuls (Hypsipetes), which have the plumage gray or dark brown, the bill red, and the tail slightly forked, and the nearly related Brown-eared Bulbuls (Hemixus), all of which are noisy birds found mainly in the forests, we come to the large genus Molpastes, the members of which are remarkable for bright color of the under tail-coverts. Of these the”Ceylon Nightingale,”or Madras Bulbul (M.fuscus), already mentioned, is one of the best known, being equally abundant throughout nearly the whole of India; it is mainly brown in coloration, with most of the feathers edged with white, though the head is deep black, the abdomen and upper tail-coverts white, and the under tail-coverts crimson. According to Oates,”it breeds from February to August, constructing a flimsy but pretty nest of dry leaves and grass in bushes, creepers, or the lower branches of trees,”and lays usually three eggs, which are pale pink marked with reddish brown and gray.

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