Blue crowned Racquet tail

Blue crowned Racquet tail(Prioniturus discurus) 27 cm; 86–176 g. Crown to hindneck pale blue; rest of face to the chin and nape apple green; underparts yellowish green; back and wings

darker green; undersides of flight-feathers greenish-blue; tail dark greenish, spatulas blackish, lateral feathers blue edged green and tipped black.

Bare parts: bill greyish white, cere grey, iris brown, and legs and feet grey. Female has shorter spatules. Immature duller, with reduced blue on crown, lacks spatulas.Race whiteheadi has less extensive blue on the crown; proposed race nesophilus reported to have even less blue on crown, but not accepted here.

Contents hide

1 Systematics History

8 Conservation Status

Systematics History

Editor’s Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

A recent phylogenetic study indicates that this species is part of a clade that contains also P. verticalis, P. flavicans, and P. luconensis.

Sometimes considered conspecific with P. flavicans (but recent reinforcement of split. Until recently was considered conspecific with P. mindorensis (which see), and previously with P. plate name, but the molecular study indicates that those belong in a different clade.

Blue crowned Racquet tail Races may represent two distinct species; further studies, using additional data and specimens, are required in order to clarify taxonomic status, especially of apparently intermediate forms in Samar and Leyte.

Proposed race nesophilus (Catanduanes I) here considered a synonym of whiteheads; suluensis (Sulu Archipelago) included within nominate. Two subspecies are currently recognized.

Subspecies

Blue-crowned Racquet-tail (Blue-crowned)Prioniturus discurus whiteheads Scientific name definitions

P. d. whiteheads

Distribution

N and CE Philippines (S Luzon and Catanduanes S to Tablas, Sibuyan, Masbate, Ticao, Panay, Guimaras, Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Biliran, Samar and Leyte).

Blue-crowned Racquet-tail (Blue-capped)Prioniturus discourse discuss Scientific name definitions

P. d. discourse

Distribution

SE and SC Philippines (Mindanao, Balut, Olutanga, Basilan and Jolo).

Distribution

Editor’s Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the ‘Subspecies’ article above. In the future, we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Habitat

The primary and secondary forest up to 1750 m, but mostly below 1500 m, especially on islands where it overlaps with P. Montanus; also mangroves, orchards, and banana plantations.

Movement

Blue crowned Racquet tail Birds arrived on Calicoan, off S Samar, in midsummer after breeding, becoming commoners into Sept-Oct; no other information suggests migratory behavior.

Diet and Foraging

Poorly documented; apparently fond of bananas, inflicting damage on unripe crops adjacent to the forest. Repeated presence in Ficus, Sibuyan, suggests use as food. Forages in small flocks, typically numbering up to a dozen birds.

of P. luconensis. Especially noisy in flight: assorted squealing and otherwise harsh notes, as well as a sound, likened to that made by a swinging rusty gate.

Breeding

Season Apr–May on Negros, Mar-May on Panay, May on Leyte; pair “billing” in Feb, Mindanao, where nesting behavior also observed in May;

Blue crowned Racquet tail birds with enlarged gonads were also collected in Jun. Nesting reputedly colonial in tall live trees, either in the main trunk or in large branches, including old woodpecker holes, e.g. of White-bellied Woodpecker (Dryocopus javensis).

Clutch three white eggs, size 30·2–31·9 mm × 25·4–26·6 mm (4). Recently hatched nestlings have greyish down.

Conservation Status

Not globally threatened. CITES II. The population considered to be stable but remains unquantified. Generally common even in degraded habitat on largely deforested islands such as Negros and considered to be common in Rajah Sikatuna National Park, on Bohol;

however, not common on Sibuyan; regularly recorded at PICOP logging concession near Bislig, Mindanao. Only recently discovered on the island of Panay.