The Master of Garden Birdsong

The Master of Garden Birdsong

Oriental Magpie-robin in urban and suburban environments. Is it thriving?

Deepal Warakagoda, 13 May 2024

The Oriental Magpie-robin in Sri Lanka

The Oriental Magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis) or Polkichcha (in Sinhala) and Katikuruvi (in Tamil) is a very familiar garden bird throughout the country. It’s doubtful that there’s anyone out there (with normal hearing) who has not heard the voice of the magpie-robin in the vicinity of their home, whether paying attention to its sounds or not. The magpie-robin is a songbird, not just an ordinary one but a master of singing, at which it can challenge all but very few bird species in the world. The singing is powerful, far-carrying and often includes melodious passages. Songs of male magpie-robins resound in every part of the country, except the interior of rainforests and cloud forests, in many months of the year. These are some reasons for Sri Lanka Nature Sounds to choose this bird as Sri Lanka’s first ‘Songbird of the Year’ in 2024 (see here).

Magpie-robin as a songbird

The Oriental Magpie-robin belongs to a distinct group recognized as ‘true’ songbirds, or ‘turdiform’ (thrush-like) birds in the Superfamily Muscicapoidea under the Order Passeriformes. They have a remarkable ability in singing and have a widely varied song repertoire. They can sing notes of different pitches in a rapid succession or even lower and higher pitched notes at the same time, producing complex, modulated and highly variable song. The songs are melodious, which is pleasing to us. The magpie-robin has this ability at the highest level among the songbirds (see here).

A preliminary study

I have been studying a few pairs of magpie-robins in the larger vicinity of my residence at Udahamulla in the suburbs of Colombo for 17 years now (since 2007). My observations have been mostly focussed on their singing and related behaviour. However, I have observed and audio recorded songs of the magpie-robin since 1991 in many areas of the country, though roughly in the western half, from Jaffna in the North to Yala in the South-east. These recordings are archived at the Drongo Nature Sounds Library. Throughout the 17 years my main focus has been on the pairs in my vicinity which live in a suburban environment.

Magpie-robins in our cities and suburbs – are they on a silent decline?

A good number of magpie-robin pairs are readily found in urban and suburban areas of Colombo. It may well appear to anyone noting this that the species is thriving in this environment. Male magpie-robins sing more or less continuously for about eight to ten months (mostly from October to June or August of the following year) during their breeding season. This prolonged singing might make one think that there is successful breeding every year.

However, my observations in my area in these past years suggest that the pairs here do not succeed in producing young for a number of years. During these 17 years I have observed not more than 11 young birds born in the larger vicinity of my residence. The pair occupying my and a few neighbouring gardens as part of its territory during this time had only three young ones! All sightings of the species showed only one young bird for a pair. This poor rate of breeding success is of great concern.

Magpie-robins appear to be fairly long lived birds, apparently over 17 years, from personal observation of two singing males in my near vicinity since 2007. It is not clear whether: having fewer offspring is a natural phenomenon to cope with increasing demand to establish new territories for males in decreasing habitat in urban and suburban environments; or suitable nesting sites in this environment are diminishing; or nests are often disturbed or predated thus preventing pairs from incubating eggs or raising young; or there is a lack of food, maybe sources of protein, to raise young successfully in successive years; or yet other causes are involved.

We need to seek answers for the deficiency in breeding to see whether our urban and suburban magpie-robins require appropriate attention from us, to also have them continue singing in our home gardens. It is also important to assess the situation with the pairs of magpie-robins in rural areas to compare the two populations.

For these reasons I think it is important to have information gathered from many urban and suburban areas, and from rural areas too, to assess the situation with regard to the magpie-robin pairs in cities and adjacent areas.

If you are interested in sharing some observations from the area you live in I would like to invite you to join the following facebook group. What is requested from you are reports: of magpie-robins singing, as all singing indicates attempted or successful breeding; of them nesting, which is done typically in tree hollows; and of the presents of young ones, described below.

How to detect the magpie-robins in your area

Magpie-robins are highly territorial birds throughout the year. The two birds of a pair occupy an area which they have separated clearly for themselves from other magpie-robin pairs in surrounding areas. Hence the pair in an area is easy to detect most of the year, especially the male as it sings for a number of months in a row in the year from every vantage position within its territory.  The female is less easily detected except when she stays in the vicinity of the singing male or is feeding on the ground nearby. If she is incubating then there is minimal chance to find her. Sometimes the two are seen together also when the male chases after her calling loudly in courtship. If there’s a bird feeding table in your vicinity then it is very likely you will see the pair here either singly or together at various times of the day. During the period, the months of year, the male is not singing the places to detect the birds of a pair are the regular feeding sites in their territory. Young birds accompany one or both parents for a few weeks after they are fledged out of the nest.

You can see below the images and identification captions of male, female and young birds of the magpie-robin.

 

 

 

 

Male, deep blue-black upperparts and breast with white underparts and wing-stripe.

(Photo by Uditha Hettige)

 

 

 

 

Female, duller than male with greyer on upperparts and breast.

(Photo by Uditha Hettige)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Young bird, resembles an adult female but duller and has small brown spots on throat to breast and brown on wings.

 

 

 

 

 

Older young bird, more like an adult female but has some brown spots on throat, breast and head, and brown on wings.

 

Join our facebook group to share your observations of the magpie-robin in your home garden – facebook group

 

Sri Lanka Nature Sounds Songbird of the Year 2024

Sri Lanka Nature Sounds Songbird of the Year 2024

Oriental Magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis) – the garden songbird in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Nature Sounds in conjunction with Drongo Nature Sounds Library has decided to present a songbird in Sri Lanka each year as ‘Songbird of the Year’.

For 2024 we present Oriental Magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis) as the Songbird of the Year.

(Photo by Namal Kamalgoda)

The background for this recognition is as follows. The founder of the two organizations above Deepal Warakagoda accompanied a bird photographer Frank Haugwitz on his photography tour of Sri Lanka in January. During their field explorations Frank suggested to Deepal naming a species as ‘Bird of the Year’ in Sri Lanka as done every year in his country Germany. One result hoped for is a special focus on it during that year by bird and nature observers.

Deepal then gave thought to the idea, and decided to name a ‘Songbird of the Year’ through his above two foundations, with his partiality to studying songbirds in Sri Lanka during the last few decades. The choice was also influenced by a discussion last year with his friend Rajith Dissanayake who was much impressed by the singing of magpie-robins in the Colombo area during a visit to Sri Lanka at the time.

In the early 1990s veteran birder Upali Ekanayaka, who was the leading expert on bird sound identification in Sri Lanka, drew Deepal’s attention to the Magpie-robin as the songbird most striking to him in the country, pointing out the extraordinary variability and musical quality in its songs. A few years later Prof. Valentine Basnayake, a well-known Western classical musician and educator in the country, commented to Deepal that the bird has clear notes that match those of Western musical scales. Deepal worked in a project to provide Prof. Basnayake with sounds of some of our bird species as educational material for Western music in the secondary school curriculum.

He recollects here with gratitude these three persons, and all the early writers who recognized the species to be one of the finest songbirds of Sri Lanka.

‘Songbird of the Year in Sri Lanka’ was first announced at the talk Deepal delivered on the topic ‘Bird Songs in Nature Soundscapes’ on 5th May 2024 (which was also International Dawn Chorus Day: please see the preceding blog post) at the exhibition National Wildlife Photography Awards, 2024, organized by the Department of Wildlife Conservation, Sri Lanka.

Audio albums: It is planned by Sri Lanka Nature Sounds to launch a few audio albums featuring some of the melodious songs of our Magpie-robin, from the recordings archived at the Drongo Nature Sounds Library, in due course. Below are a few samples of the recordings of the Magpie-robin’s songs heard in three different areas in the country.

at Gangodawila, off Nugegoda, a suburb of Colombo

at Seenuggala, Udawalawe National Park, in the Intermediate climatic zone of Sri Lanka

at Weddagala, off Kalawana, near the Sinharaja rainforest

 

Sri Lanka Nature Sounds & Drongo Nature Sounds Library                                                                                                                                        6th May 2024

 

 

 

International Dawn Chorus Day 2024

International Dawn Chorus Day, 5th May 2024

5th May is International Dawn Chorus Day. On this day people listen specially to, and often audio record, the sounds that many birds make together at dawn, in varied settings, across the world, with members of bird and nature societies sometimes gathering in groups to do so. The tradition is now nearly half a century old, having begun in Britain.

This year, a microphone rig setup in my garden in a suburban environment, here in Sri Lanka, captured the early morning chorus of garden birds in my neighbourhood. A part of the recording of the chorus can be heard below. A major participant in the chorus here these days is the Oriental Magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis). It sings its beautiful songs in many variations differing across days, weeks and months, during its breeding season.

 

A week before, the same bird (Oriental Magpie-robin), at the same location, in the morning:

Oriental Magpie-robin

Photo by Namal Kamalgoda

The Magpie-robin is one of the few prolific songbirds in Sri Lanka and is the only one found every home garden in the country. The singing ability of this bird is truly remarkable. Its songs, consisting either almost entirely of clear “musical” notes, or a mix of some of these with high squeaks, resound almost everywhere in the country during the time it is breeding. Every male tends to sing a different song to another male in the vicinity, these performances being territorial. Having closely studied the singing life of the Magpie-robin, and thereby knowing its abilities as a songbird, I thought it is well justified to name it the Songbird of the Year 2024, on this International Dawn Chorus Day: see the following blog post for more details on this subject, https://www.srilankanaturesounds.com/sri-lanka-nature-sounds-songbird-of-the-year-2024/

Deepal Warakagoda                                                                                                                                                                                                        Sri Lanka Nature Sounds                                                                                                                                                                                             6th May 2024

 

 

 

Garden Songster

Garden Songster

 

Soon after months of prolonged rains ceased, last couple of months in the last year Oriental Magpie-Robins (Copsychus saularis) in the area began to sing getting ready to commence their breeding season. The Magpie-Robin is a prolific songbird and is the familiar garden songster amongst our garden birds. It has a large variable song repertoire, and the songs are musical.

The male of the pair that occupies our garden too within its territory, was singing from a couple of gardens away from ours and was in full. Below is a part of its songs captured with a parabolic reflector microphone setup.

 

Below is a recording made when the male was singing from a close by tree.

 

The singing male.

Male of the pair of an adjoining territory was too singing a few gardens away in a different direction. Captured a part of its song in the parabolic reflector microphone setup while its singing about 100 meters away.

 

 

 

Subsong of Oriental Magpie-Robin

Male Magpie-robin sings its subsong in a flower tree.

Subsong of Oriental Magpie-Robin 

A male Oriental Magpie-Robin is singing its subsong these days in my home garden. It sings from inside of a dense flower tree, fairly well hidden in the foliage, perched about six feet from the ground, and sings mostly in mid morning and afternoon. These singing sessions are long, and also phrases of the subsong are much longer than those of the magpie-robin’s full song.

Male Magpie-Robins start to sing their subsong when their breeding season approaches. Once they are ready to start their breeding activities the males sing their loud, full song from a quite exposed, high positions (i.e. top of tall trees, top of TV antennas) within the territory of each pair. Their subsong is quite soft and hardly heard beyond several metres unlike the full song.  Composition of the subsong is also very much different to that of the full song, a phrase of it is quite long and composed of a number of different softly uttered notes.

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Tail of this male magpie-robin is in moult. It’s another sign that it is getting ready for on coming breeding season (they moult their feathers and get ready to breeding with their newly grown fresh plumage). Once it gets its tail feathers fully grown it will soon start to sing its loud phrases of full song from tree tops and the like.

I recorded a couple of sessions of the singing male and parts of these phrases of its subsong are featured below. (A Spotted Dove also sings in the background).

Male Magpie-robin sings its subsong in a flower tree.