Iora

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For the Australian Aboriginal people of the Sydney region, see Eora
Ioras
White-tailed Iora
White-tailed Iora
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Suborder: Passeri
Family: Aegithinidae
Genus: Aegithina
Vieillot, 1816
Species

See text.

The ioras are a family of small passerine bird species found in India and southeast Asia. They one of only three bird families that are entirely endemic to the Indomalayan ecozone. They were formerly grouped with the other two of those families, the leafbirds and fairy-bluebirds, in the family Irenidae.

These are bulbul-like birds, but whereas that group tends to be drab in coloration, many ioras are sexually dimorphic, with the males being brightly plumaged in yellows and greens. Unlike the leafbirds, ioras have thin legs, and their bills are proportionately longer. Calls are strident whistles; songs are musical to human ears.[1]

Their habitats include acacia scrub, forest edge, and closed forests, as well as agricultural land and (in the Common Iora) gardens.[1]

Ioras eat insects and spiders, which they find by nimbly gleaning the leaves of the slenderest outer twigs.[1]

In the two species whose male courtship displays are known, they are elaborate, culminating in the males' parachute-style descent looking like "green balls of fluff". The nests are compact open cups felted to branches with spiderweb. Females lay 2 or 3 eggs, which have pinkish speckles and red and purple lines. They incubate at night; the males, by day. Incubation lasts about 14 days.[1]

[edit] Species of Aegithinidae

[edit] Reference

  1. ^ a b c d Mead, Christopher J.; Wells, D. R. (2003). "Ioras", in Perrins, Christopher: The Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Firefly Books, 507. ISBN 1-55297-777-3. 


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[edit] External links