Common Iora

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Common Iora

Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Aegithinidae
Genus: Aegithina
Species: A. tiphia
Binomial name
Aegithina tiphia
(Linnaeus, 1758)

The Common Iora, Aegithina tiphia is a small passerine bird. This Iora breeds across tropical South Asia from Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka into Indonesia. This common species is found in forest and other well-wooded areas. Two to four greenish white eggs are laid in a small, loose, cup-shaped nest made out of grass and built in a tree.

During the breeding season, the male performs an acrobatic courtship display, darting up into the air fluffing up all his feathers, especially those on the pale green rump, then spiralling down to the original perch. Once he lands, he spreads his tail and droops his wings.

The adult Common Iora is about 25cm long. The breeding male has black or greenish upperparts, and bright yellow underparts. The flight feathers are blackish with an obvious white wing bar. Non-breeding males have uniformly greenish upperparts. The females are similar to non-breeding males, but with grey-black wings.

There is a good deal of racial variation in the breeding males. A. t. multicolor of Sri Lanka and southern India has a black crown and back, A. t. tiphia of the Himalayas has the upperparts entirely green, and A. t. humei of peninsular India has a black crown with its back a mixture of black and green. Care must be taken in separating from the White-tailed Iora whose range overlaps in India.

The call is a mixture of churrs, chattering and whistles, and the song is a trilled wheeeee-tee. The Common Iora eats insects and spiders.

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