Rufous Treepie

Overview

The rufous treepie (Dendrocitta vagabunda) is a member of the crow family, Corvidae, native to the Indian subcontinent and adjoining parts of Southeast Asia. It is a long-tailed bird characterised by loud, musical calls that make it very conspicuous in its environment.

Identification

• Body is primarily cinnamon with a black head and underparts that are warm tawny-brown to orange-brown.
• Long, graduated tail is bluish grey and tipped in black.
• Features a white patch on the wing, with white wing coverts and black primaries.
• Stout, hooked bill, along with black legs and feet.

Habitat

Found commonly in open scrub, agricultural areas, forests, and urban gardens across a range covering Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand. In the Garhwal Himalayas, the species migrates seasonally between different elevations.

Diet

A primarily arboreal omnivore that forages by clinging and clambering through branches, often joining mixed-species feeding flocks. It eats invertebrates, small reptiles, bird eggs, seeds, fruits, and nectar, and is known to cache food. It acts as a cleaning symbiont for sambar deer, feeding on ectoparasites.

Did you know?

The bird feeds on the fruits of Trichosanthes tricuspidata, which are toxic to mammals. It is also considered beneficial to palm cultivation in southern India for foraging on the grubs of the destructive weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus.