White-throated Fantail

White-throated Fantail    Rhipidura albicollis 

Etymology:

• Rhipidura : rhipis-fan; ouros –tailed  { Fan tailed}

• Albicollis : Latin word Albi – white ; Collis – Collar  { White collared} 

Vernacular Names : Hindi: Machharya, Chakdil, Pahari: Naklaychara, Pun: Chitta gal nacha, Ben: Dumchitri, Chak-dayal, Chak-dil, Lepcha: Nam-dit-nom, Guj: Tapkili nayan, Mar: Nachan, Nachra, Te: Dasari pitta

Sub species :

1. Nominate : C Himalayas (Nepal and Sikkim), and from plains of Bangladesh S to E India (lower West Bengal)
2. a canescens : Kashmir E to W Nepal {paler than nominate, more ashy on back, breast and belly}
3. a.orissae: EC India (E Madhya Pradesh, S Bihar, Odisha) { mantle and scapulars olive-grey, clearly demarcated from black back, breast slaty, belly with buff patch, rectrices tipped creamy buff}
4. a.stanleyi : North east Indian states ( East of Sikkim) { darker, more slaty, back darker and washed with brown, black of upper breast merging more gradually into greyer lower breast, white tips of rectrices more extensive }

 Distribution in India:

1. Nominate : C Himalayas (Nepal and Sikkim), and from plains of Bangladesh S to E India (lower West Bengal)
2. a canescens : Kashmir E to W Nepal
3. a.orissae: EC India (E Madhya Pradesh, S Bihar, Odisha)
4. a.stanleyi : North east Indian states ( East of Sikkim)

Description: Size of 17·5–20·5 cm; 9–13 g. The nominate race has short white supercilium. Its crown, face and upperparts, including wing are slaty grey. The  tail is slaty, two central feather pairs are unmarked, remaining rectrices have prominent white tips. The chin and throat are white, underparts are dark slate-grey. The iris is brown; bill and legs are black. Both the sexes are alike. The juvenile is like adult, but darker body feathers with brownish tinge or edging, supercilium is tinged buff, wing-coverts are tipped light brown, white area on throat greatly reduced. Race canescens is paler than nominate, more ashy on back, breast and belly; stanleyi is darker, more slaty, back darker and washed with brown, black of upper breast merging more gradually into greyer lower breast, white tips of rectrices more extensive; orissae has mantle and scapulars olive-grey, clearly demarcated from black back, breast slaty, belly with buff patch, rectrices tipped creamy buff.

Habitat: It is found in variety of wooded habitats, including broadleaf evergreen forest, pine forest, deciduous forest, open forest, secondary forest; also found in cultivated areas, parks and gardens, often along roads and forest paths. It occurs from lowlands to mountains: breeds at 600–3050 m in N India and found in  foothills and adjacent plains in non-breeding season. It is also found down to coastal plains in S India.

Food habits: It eats small flying insects. It forages in undergrowth, lower and middle storeys, occasionally into canopy. It hunts along outside of bushes, main trunks, and branches, moving in twisting path, sallying after disturbed prey. It captures insects in air by flycatching, sometimes beyond canopy, and on ground. It frequents mixed-species foraging flocks, moving along edges of such groups.

Breeding habits: They breed in Mar–Aug and are multi-brooded. The nest is built by both sexes. The nest is a small neat cup of moss, grass, shreds of leaves, etc., bound with external coat of spider web, lined with fine grasses, short untidy “tail” dangling from bottom, placed  above ground in horizontal fork or attached to thin twigs of bushes. They lay a clutch of 2–4 eggs. The incubation is done by both sexes. The incubation period is 12–13 days. The fledging period  is 13–15 days.