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Endemic Species White-whiskered Laughingthrush
Yellow Tit
Endemic Sub-Species
Winter Wren
More Birds in Taiwan
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White-browed Bush-Robin Tarsiger indicus formosanus Endemic subspecies
The male White-browed Bush-Robin is a small (15 cm) bird with a bluish-gray face and mantle, a yellowish-olive crown, a long white supercilium, a black bill and brownish legs. The throat, breast and flanks are dull orange, and the belly is whitish. The female is grayish-brown above, with a whitish eye-ring and supercilium, and orange-buff below with a whitish belly. Compared to the mainland races, the male of the formosanus subspecies of Taiwan is duller overall, has a yellowish-olive rather than a slaty-blue crown and lacks the thin white malar stripe; the female is grayer above and yellower below.
The White-browed Bush-Robin feeds on insects, which it finds mainly on or near the ground. It prefers dense undergrowth of heavy mixed broadleaf and conifer forest at high elevations. The male sings from the ground or from a small tree. The song consists of a series of rapidly repeated phrases, descending and ascending, which has been described as “shri-de-de-dew ... shri-de-de-dew”. Calls include a click-like croaking churr, “trrr” or “kr kr kr”, and a sweet “tiut-tiut”. The nest is a cup-shaped structure placed in a hollow bank, in which the female lays 3-4 eggs. Little information is available on its detailed breeding habits. The White-browed Bush-Robin is an uncommon resident of forests in Taiwan at high elevations, descending lower in winter.
References: A Field Guide to the Birds of China (Mackinnon and Phillipps); Handbook of Birds of the World Vol. 10; N. J. Collar, “Endemic subspecies of Taiwan birds—first impressions”, in Birding ASIA, Number 2, December 2004
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