Animalia Life
Aegithina tiphia
TAXONOMY
Motacilla tiphia Linnaeus, 1758, Bengal.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Iora, black-winged iora; French: Petit iora; German:
Schwarzflьgelaegithina; Spanish: Iora Comъn.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
5.5–6 in (13–17 cm); 0.5 oz (13.5 g). Males have dark green to
black upperparts, bright yellow underparts, black wings with
white bars, dark tails, and black crowns. Females have olivegreen
upperparts, duller yellow underparts, foreheads, and eyebrows,
and olive-green crowns.
DISTRIBUTION
Almost all of Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka, southern Yunnan
and southwestern Guanxi, all of Myanmar, Indochina and the
Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Palawan.
HABITAT
Open woodlands, secondary forest, gardens, orchards, mangroves,
and beach forests.
BEHAVIOR
Outside of breeding season, travels in small flocks or pairs,
continuously hunting for small arthropods. Contact is maintained
through frequent vocalizations. Distinctive melodious
songs and whistles.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Though some fruit is consumed, diet predominantly small
arthropods (spiders, moths, caterpillars, etc.) gleaned from leaves.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Monogamous. Distinctive courtship
BEHAVIOR
: Male repeatedly
leaps one or two meters above perch, then glides back down
with feathers erected, assuming a spherical appearance. The
nest is deep and cup-shaped. Clutch size two to four. Eggs are
pinkish white with brownish or purplish blotches.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened. Has likely expanded its range due to creation
of orchards and gardens.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
Controls caterpillars and other harmful insects in fruit orchards.
Photo Gallery of - Common iora
