Terpsiphone+paradisi

=**Asian Paradise-flycatcher**= //Terpsiphone paradisi// (Linnaeus, 1758) toc
 * The Asian Paradise-flycatcher will be treated as a single species here despite the recent split adopted by certain treatments.

[[image:Asian_Paradise-flycatcher_(Female).jpg width="800" height="533" caption="Photograph by Thimindu Goonatilike (2010), licensed under Creative Commons. Annotations by Dominic Ng."]]
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With over ten thousand species by most accounts, the birds (Aves) make up the most diverse vertebrate group after 'fishes'. About four hundred species have been recorded in tiny Singapore, an incredible number in light of its overall land area!

Birds are charismatic, and arguably the easiest to observe in nature compared to other vertebrate taxa in Singapore. It is not at all unusual here to sight dozens of bird species in the space of a few hours! Many of these species tend to be very visually distinct, making the learning curve for identification relatively shallow. The sheer variety in colour and form of the numerous bird species here can be easily appreciated by a wide, general audience, and can serve as a platform to developing a greater interest and love for nature and wildlife.

The Asian Paradise-flycatcher is one of the more charismatic species with records in Singapore. The species is relatively common, with the two native subspecies observed in a variety of forms, making it easy to see and rewarding for both beginners and more enthusiastic birders alike. It can be seen in most 'green areas' here, often along forest edges and deeper in, but can sometimes be observed in parks and gardens!

In addition, more detailed information on taxonomy and systematics of this species, and indeed the family as a whole, are difficult to pin down in a single location, often requiring journal access and volumes, the existence of which is likely unfamiliar to many. This page aims to condense and make available such resources in a single location.

**Etymology**
The generic epithet //Terpsiphone// is derived from Greek //τερψι-//, //terpsi-//, 'delighting in', and //φωνή//, //phōnē//, 'voice'; t he specific epithet // paradisi // is derived from Late Latin //paradīsus//, 'paradise'.

Diagnosis
The Asian Paradise-flycatcher, having an average body length of 20 cm, is unmistakable, with its rufous to chestnut upperparts, pale to white underparts, grey breast, black head with a prominent crest, and blue eye-ring. It cannot be confused with anything else in the region except the much rarer, migratory Japanese Paradise-flycatcher (//T. atrocaudata//) - the male of the latter has purple to black upperparts, while the female is extremely difficult to discern in the field. The males of both species have long tail streamers that are often longer than the body itself.

Description
The Asian Paradise-flycatcher exhibits sexual dimorphism, with the male's distinctive tail streamers a prominent feature. The male additionally exhibits dichromatism, with a rufous morph and a white morph; the female only exists in the rufous morph. The spotting present in the juvenile plumage is lost upon maturity. Two subspecies are recorded in Singapore - the Oriental (=Blyth's) Paradise-flycatcher an uncommon non-breeding visitor, and the Amur Paradise-flycatcher a common winter visitor and passage migrant. The easiest way to tell both subspecies apart is by the plumage on the head and the chest - the black head sharply contrasts the pale grey chest of the Amur Paradise-flycatcher, whereas the Oriental Paradise-flycatcher shows no such contrast, appearing instead to blend together. The former also tends to have upperparts with a purple tinge, while the latter tends to have an orange tinge, but this may be difficult to ascertain in the field.

Habitat and Distribution
In Southeast Asia and indeed, throughout Singapore, the Asian Paradise-flycatcher is present in broadleaf evergreen forest, secondary growth, mangrove, and even parks and garden for birds on migration.

Diet and Feeding
The Asian Paradise-flycatcher primarily consumes small winged insects such as flies, bugs and beetles, but is known to occasionally feed on spiders as well as larger insects, such as praying mantises, moths, and butterflies, by battering them to death and consuming the thorax and abdomen. It usually perches high on a shade-covered branch, sallying out to catch insects on the wing and returning to the perch to consume them - often singly or in pairs.

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Breeding
The breeding season for the non-migratory subspecies //affinis// is March to July, while for the migratory species //incei// it is May to July. Males are highly territorial and do not tolerate intruders. Breeding pairs are monogamous and build the nest together but mainly by the female, who lays 3 to 4 eggs in the cup-shaped nest constructed with twigs and web. Brooding duties are shared, with each parent taking turns. Incubation lasts 14 to 16 days and the nestling period 9 to 12 days, with chicks hatching in 21 to 23 days.



Voice
The song (i.e. longer, more complex vocalisations used for courtship) of subspecies //affinis// is a monotonous, ringing, whistled 'wu-wu-wu…'; while the song of subspecies //incei// comprises short bouts of monotonously repeated, ringing 'ti-wu-wu-ti-wu-wu…', and is unlikely to be heard in Southeast Asia. Calls (i.e. shorter, simpler vocalisations used to alert and contact flock members) tend to be harsh, rasping, or nasal.
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 * The song of subspecies //affinis//, licensed under Creative Commons. || The song of subspecies //incei//, licensed under Creative Commons. ||

Status
The Asian Paradise-flycatcher, in spite of its beauty, is not commonly trapped, nor is it hunted, despite being common in much of its range. It is relatively robust to habitat loss, evident from its appearance in forest edges and urban green spaces. Combined with its extraordinarily widespread distribution, it is not locally nor globally threatened, and currently rated Least Concern (LC) by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Taxonavigation

 * Animalia
 * Chordata
 * Aves
 * Passeriformes
 * Oscines
 * Corvoidea
 * Monarchidae
 * //Terpsiphone// (Gloger, 1827)
 * //Terpsiphone paradisi// (Linnaeus, 1758)

Gene sequences for ND2, COI, GAPDH, cmos, cytb, TGFb2, myoglobin, Fib5, ND3 of //T. paradisi// are available [|on GenBank]. No barcode or complete genome sequence is yet available.

Description
The Asian Paradise-flycatcher was first described under the protonym //Corvus paradisi// by Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his //Systema Naturæ// in 1758.



Type information
The holotype for //T. paradisi// is either unknown or was never designated; there exists a syntype from Flores, Bari, Indonesia; currently in the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands, dated to 1888.

Phylogeny
The Asian Paradise-flycatcher belongs to the suborder Oscines, placed within the most diverse avian order Passeriformes (passerines), sometimes known as 'perching birds'. The location of the oscines or 'songbirds' within the passerines is the uppermost branch of the avian tree of life (presented below), according to Jarvis et. al (2015) : The monarch-flycatchers, a.k.a. monarchs (Monarchidae), is the family to which the paradise-flycatchers belong. They are now known to be closely related to crows, birds-of-paradise, and allies. Many of the hundred or so species that currently make up Monarchidae were previously assigned to other groups based on traditional systematic methods mainly favouring skeletal structure; body, leg and bill shape; and lifestyle, habits and habitat.

The monarchs had long been grouped with all other Old World flycatchers in the large, diverse family Muscicapidae. This classification scheme persisted throughout the early and mid-20th century, and only in the 1950s did a more modern picture begin to arise, with scientists noting the unique syrinx morphology (the 'turdine thumb') and spotting of juvenile plumage. Delacour (1947) also notes the behavioural difference between monarchs and the muscicapines, with the former 'behaving less like flycatchers and more like arboreal insect-gleaners'.

The contemporary understanding of monarch systematics has its roots in the morphological analyses undertaken by W. J. Beecher (1953), in which the monarchs were split out from the other Old World flycatchers into the newly minted Monarchidae, including whistlers, drongos, and vireos, each of which are now placed in their separate families. He characterised the new family based on morphological differences in their skulls, associated muscles, tongues, and bills.

Sibley & Ahlquist's seminal 1990 paper employing DNA-DNA hybridisation techniques placed the monarch-flycatchers with its contemporary allies, suggesting a crow-like common ancestorunaffiliated with the true muscicapines. The drongos were ranked as a subfamily of the crows (Corvidae), and the monarchs one of three tribes within the drongo subfamily. The validity of the three groupings was supported by Christidis & Schodde's 1991 protein-based phylogeny, and importantly were in agreement with earlier morphological and behavioural analyses. This three-group scheme has remained largely unchanged - contemporary treatments often closely mirror this understanding. Numerous papers employing nucleotide data have lent further credence to the result, with Jønsson & Fjeldså's 2006 oscine phylogenetic supertree (presented below) incorporating such findings.



Subspecies
There are currently fourteen recognised subspecies, with the two native subspecies marked in **bold** : (Swainson, 1838) || breeds W Tien Shan S to N Afghanistan, N Pakistan, NW & NC India and W & C Nepal; non-breeding E Pakistan and peninsular India || (Linnaeus, 1758) || C & S India, C Bangladesh and SW Myanmar; non-breeding also Sri Lanka || (Zarudny & Härms, 1912) || Sri Lanka || (Salomonsen, 1933) || breeds E Nepal E to NE India, E Bangladesh and N Myanmar; non-breeding also Malay Peninsula || Oates, 1890 || C Nicobar Is || (Salomonsen, 1933) || C Myanmar || (Salomonsen, 1933) || E Myanmar, S China (S Yunnan) and Thailand E to Indochina || (Richmond, 1903) || Simeulue I (off NW Sumatra) || Salvadori, 1887 || Nias I (off NW Sumatra) || (E. J. O. Hartert, 1916) || Borneo || Büttikofer, 1894 || Sumbawa, Flores, Lembata, Alor (Lesser Sundas) || A. B. Meyer, 1894 || Sumba I (Lesser Sundas) || non-breeding mainly SE Asia ||
 * Subspecies || Distribution ||
 * //T. p. leucogaster//
 * //T. p. paradisi//
 * //T. p. ceylonensis//
 * //**T. p. affinis**//
 * (Blyth, 1846)** || Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra ||
 * //T. p. saturatior//
 * //T. p. nicobarica//
 * //T. p. burmae//
 * //T. p. indochinensis//
 * //T. p. procera//
 * //T. p. insularis//
 * //T. p. borneensis//
 * //T. p. floris//
 * //T. p. sumbaensis//
 * //**T. p. incei**//
 * (Gould, 1852)** || breeds C, E & NE China, Russian Far East (S Ussuriland) and N Korea;

In spite of the work done on the placement of the monarchs within the passerines, the internal phylogeny within the monarchs remained poorly resolved, with scarce molecular data available until recent years. Fabre et al. (2012) was the first comprehensive phylogenetic reconstruction of Monarchidae, suggesting an eastern Asian origin for //Terpsiphone//, with multiple simultaneous colonisations of southwest Asia, the Indian Ocean, and Africa.



The most interesting finding was the apparent polyphyly of the species. They proposed that the Asian Paradise-flycatcher was composed of populations that had retained the ancestral plumage of the genus, and should instead be three species: the Indian Paradise-flycatcher //T. paradisi// (3 subspecies), the Oriental (or Blyth's) Paradise-flycatcher //T. affinis// (9 subspecies), and the Amur Paradise-flycatcher //T. incei// (monotypic). The subspecies would be reallocated as follows: (Swainson, 1838) || //**T. a. affinis**// (Linnaeus, 1758) || //T. a. saturatior// (Salomonsen, 1933) ||  || (Zarudny & Härms, 1912) || //T. a. nicobarica// Oates, 1890 ||  || (Salomonsen, 1933) ||  || (Salomonsen, 1933) ||  || (Richmond, 1903) ||  || Salvadori, 1887 ||  || (E. J. O. Hartert, 1916) ||  || Büttikofer, 1894 ||  || A. B. Meyer, 1894 ||  || This treatment has been accepted by numerous scientists but agreement is not yet unanimous - further studies based on genomic data are needed to validate the split.
 * //Terpsiphone paradisi// || //Terpsiphone affinis// || //Terpsiphone incei// ||
 * //T. p. leucogaster//
 * (Blyth, 1846)** || //**T. incei**//
 * (Gould, 1852)** ||
 * //T. p. paradisi//
 * //T. p. ceylonensis//
 * || //T. a. burmae//
 * || //T. a. indochinensis//
 * || //T. a. procera//
 * || //T. a. insularis//
 * || //T. a. borneensis//
 * || //T. a. floris//
 * || //T. a. sumbaensis//