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Great Iora Aegithina lafresnayei Scientific name definitions

David Wells
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated January 7, 2013

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Field Identification

13·6–15·4 cm. Male nominate race has anterior face and entire ­underparts bright yellow; forehead yellow, fore­crown black-fringed yellow; rest of crown, ear-coverts, nape and upperparts solidly (slightly glossy) black, or dark olive with broad black tips; wings and tail solidly black; iris grey-white or dark brown (possible sexual difference, not yet clarified); bill pale grey-blue with slaty-black culmen ridge; feet blue-grey. Female has lores and narrow eyering pale yellow, crown, upperparts, wing-coverts and tail olive-green, flight-feathers sooty grey, underparts pale yellow, breast side and flanks suffused green. Juvenile resembles female, but has pale fringing on uppertail-coverts, duller underparts; apparent juvenile male with parti-coloured tail suggests existence of subadult plumage, but this tail pattern occurs also among some adults of supposed intergrades between nominate and innotata. Races differ mainly in upperpart coloration: <em>innotata</em> is darkish olive-green above, including tail, variably dusted black, with flight-feathers mainly sooty black, tertials sooty olive (female wing all green); <em>xanthotis</em> has lores, narrow eyering and short spur behind eye yellow, and cap, upperparts, wings and tail clear lime-green, tail feathers with yellow tips, female duller with olive flanks.

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.

Race innotata intergrades with nominate in Malay Peninsula. Three subspecies recognized.

Subspecies


SUBSPECIES

Aegithina lafresnayei innotata Scientific name definitions

Distribution

S Myanmar and S China (S Yunnan) S to N Malay Peninsula, S Laos and C Vietnam.

SUBSPECIES

Aegithina lafresnayei xanthotis Scientific name definitions

Distribution

Cambodia and S Vietnam.

SUBSPECIES

Aegithina lafresnayei lafresnayei Scientific name definitions

Distribution

extreme S Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia (S to S hills of Johor).

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

Edge and canopy of semi-deciduous to evergreen lowland forest, including crowns of giant emergent trees; said also to enter tall secondary growth and occasionally overgrown plantations (of durian, rubber, etc.). In Malay Peninsula, apparently confined to submontane habitat in S, whereas perhaps mainly at plains level farther N. In N Vietnam, towards N limit of range, found by one observer in 1940s only in lowlands, in forest dominated by bamboo and with dense undergrowth, also in hedges and groves of otherwise more or less cleared country, including around villages.

Movement

Resident.

Diet and Foraging

No information on diet and foraging methods. Joins mixed-species foraging parties of insectivores .

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Rapid, high-pitched “chiu-chiu-chiu…” or “chew-chew-chew…”; in Peninsular Malaysia, “pretty song, quite different from tiphia” in extreme NW (Perlis), also 4-note whistle and churrs in S (Johor); loud whistling, richer and more powerful than that of A. tiphia, described from Myanmar (Tenasserim).

Breeding

No confirmed description. Nests collected in early 20th century in Perak (Peninsular Malaysia), reported as of this species, suspected of having belonged to A. tiphia.

Not globally threatened. Generally uncommon to only locally common; sparse in far S of range. Claimed from coastal strand-woodland casuarinas (Casuarina) in SE Sumatra, but evidence is equivocal and habitat atypical; corroborative observations required. As it is more or less tied to inland forests below the ecotone with montane forest, a huge part of the species’ original living space was lost to clearance during 20th century, with rate of loss accelerated in recent decades. N of Malay Peninsula, core habitat suspected to have been plains-level or bottomland forest, most of which has disappeared, and remainder now excessively fragmented. Occurs in several protected areas, including Kaeng Krachan National Park, in Thailand, Taman Negara National Park, in Peninsular Malaysia, and Nam Bai Cat Tien National Park, in Vietnam. Although not currently listed as threatened, it seems reasonable to suggest that it may already be Near-threatened.

Distribution of the Great Iora - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Great Iora

Recommended Citation

Wells, D. (2020). Great Iora (Aegithina lafresnayei), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.greior1.01
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