Andaman Bulbul    Pycnonotus (atriceps) fuscoflavescens

Etymology :

• Pycnonotus : puknos thick, compact; notos –backed { thick backed}
• Atriceps: ater-black; ceps –capped { Black Capped}
• Fuscoflavescens : Latin word fuscus – brown, dusky; flavescens- golden-yellowish { yellowish brown}

Distribution in India: Resident of Andaman Island.

Description: Size of 14–17 cm. It is a small, active bulbul. The male has dull blackish forehead and throat usually with glossy greyish sheen, grading into dark olive crown and face. The nape, mantle, back and scapulars are dusky olive; rump feathers are yellow at tip and black at base. The tail is olive-yellow at base with dark brown subterminal bar and yellow tips .The upperwing coverts are olive-green; flight-feathers are dark brown on inner webs, dull olive-green fringing on outer webs, including on primaries. The below parts are bright yellow, especially on belly to undertail-coverts, suffused with olive on breast; iris is pale cobalt-blue; bill is blackish-grey, on some individuals plumbeous blue with upper mandible tipped and edged black, on others nearly all blackish but paler and bluish at base; legs are blackish-grey. The female is slightly smaller than male, with paler olive-green head lacking sheen, more greenish-yellow underparts. The juvenile is like female but duller, more uniform olive-green, with paler bill, browner head, paler throat, and narrower, weaker yellow on tail tip.

Habitats: It is found in evergreen forest, light deciduous forest, edges and thick secondary growth.

Food Habits: It eats fruit, plucked from branches of trees and shrubs and some insects. It is seen singly or in pairs, sometimes in small groups. It is often an inconspicuous component of understorey or mid-storey mixed-species flocks.

Breeding: No information.