rufous treepie

The sexes are alike and the main colour of the body is cinnamon with a black head and the long graduated tail is bluish grey and is tipped in black. The wing has a white patch. The only confusable species is the grey treepie which however lacks the bright rufous mantle. The bill is stout with a hooked tip. The underparts and lower back are a warm tawny-brown to orange-brown in colour with white wing coverts and black primaries. The bill, legs and feet are black.{{cite book|author1=Rasmussen, P.C. |author2=Anderton, J.C. |name-list-style=amp |year=2005 |title= Birds of South Asia: The Ripley guide |volume=2 |page=595 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution & Lynx Edicions}}

The widespread populations show variations and several subspecies are recognized. The nominate subspecies is found in the northeastern part of peninsular India south to Hyderabad. The desert form is paler and called pallida, vernayi of the Eastern Ghats is brighter while parvula of the Western Ghats is smaller in size. The form in Afghanistan and Pakistan is bristoli while the form in southern Thailand is saturatior. E. C. Stuart Baker describes sclateri from the upper Chindwin to the Chin Hills and kinneari from southern Myanmar and northwest Thailand.{{cite book |title=The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Birds. Volume 1 |author=Baker, EC Stuart |year=1922 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |location=London |pages=48–52 |chapter=Dendrocitta rufa |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/birds___01bake#page/48/mode/2up/}} The population in eastern Thailand an Indochina is sakeratensis.{{cite journal|author=Dickinson, E.C. |author2=Dekker, R.W.R.J. |author3=Eck,S. |author4=Somadikarta, S. |name-list-style=amp |title=Systematic notes on Asian birds. 45. Types of the Corvidae |journal=Zoologische Verhandelingen, Leiden |volume=350| year=2004 |pages=111–148 |url=http://www.repository.naturalis.nl/document/43939}}

The range of the rufous treepie is quite large, covering Pakistan, India and into Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand. It inhabits open forest consisting of scrub, plantations and gardens. In the Garhwal Himalayas, it migrates seasonally between different elevations.{{Cite journal |last1=Naithani|first1=A. |last2=Bhatt|first2=D. |name-list-style=amp |date=2012 |title=Bird community structure in natural and urbanized habitats along an altitudinal gradient in Pauri district (Garhwal Himalaya) of Uttarakhand state, India |journal=Biologia |volume=67 |issue=4 |pages=800–808 |doi=10.2478/s11756-012-0068-z |doi-access=free}}

The rufous treepie is primarily an arboreal omnivore feeding on fruits, nectar (of Bombax ceiba{{cite journal |author1=Raju, A. J. S.|author2=Rao, S. P.|author3=Rangaiah, K. |year=2005 |title=Pollination by bats and birds in the obligate outcrosser Bombax ceiba L. (Bombacaceae), a tropical dry season flowering tree species in the Eastern Ghats forests of India |journal=Ornithological Science|volume=4 |pages=81–87|doi=10.2326/osj.4.81 |s2cid=86586782|url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/osj/4/1/4_1_81/_pdf|url-access=subscription}}) seeds,{{cite journal |author=Sharma, S. K. |year=1992 |title=Tree Pie Dendrocitta vagabunda (Latham) feeding on aril of seeds of Pithecellobium dulce |url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48732854|journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society |volume=89 |issue=3 |page=374}} invertebrates, small reptiles and the eggs and young of birds;{{cite journal|author=Begbie, A|year=1905|title=Curious ferocity of the Indian Tree-pie Dendrocitta rufa |journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society|volume=16|issue=3|pages=502–503 |url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5725898}} it has also been known to take flesh from recently killed carcasses. It is an agile forager, clinging and clambering through the branches and sometimes joining mixed hunting parties along with species such as drongos and babblers. They are known to be a cleaning symbiont of deer, feeding on ectoparasites of sambar which permit them to perch and position themselves to invite the birds to examine specific parts.{{cite journal|author=Bharucha, E.K. |year=1987 |title=An observation on the relationship between a Sambar and a Tree-Pie |journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society |volume=84 |issue=3 |page=675 |url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/49081782}}{{cite journal|author=Sazima, I. |year=2011 |title=Cleaner birds: a worldwide overview|journal=Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=32–47 |url=http://repositorio.unicamp.br/bitstream/REPOSIP/55989/1/WOS000305115000004.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181018122501/http://repositorio.unicamp.br/bitstream/REPOSIP/55989/1/WOS000305115000004.pdf |archive-date=2018-10-18 }} Like many other corvids, it caches food.{{cite journal|title= An evolutionary perspective on caching by corvids |author1=de Kort, S. R. |author2=Clayton, N. S. |name-list-style=amp |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B |year=2006 |volume= 273 |issue=1585 |pmid= 16615207 |pages=417–423 |pmc=1560201 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2005.3350}} It is considered to be beneficial to palm cultivation in southern India due to its foraging on the grubs of the destructive weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus.{{cite journal|author1=Krishnakumar, R. |author2=Sudha, G. |year=2002 |title=Indian tree pie Dendrocitta vagabunda parvula (Whistler and Kinnear) (Corvidae). A predatory bird of red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Oliv.) |journal= Insect Environment |volume=8 |page=133}} Its feeds on the fruits of Trichosanthes tricuspidata which are toxic to mammals.{{cite book|pages=216–221 |title=Handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan. Volume 5 |edition=Second |publisher= Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |author1=Ali, S. |author2=Ripley, S.D. |name-list-style=amp |year=1986}}

The breeding season in India is April to June. In Bengal, the peak is in April and May with heightened levels of pineal gland activity and serotonin production.{{Cite journal |last1=Chaudhuri|first1=S. |last2=Maiti|first2=B.R. |date=1989 |title=Pineal activity during the seasonal gonadal cycle in a wild avian species, the tree pie (Dendrocitta vagabunda) |journal=General and Comparative Endocrinology |volume=76 |issue=3 |pages=346–349 |doi=10.1016/0016-6480(89)90128-7|pmid=2583467}} It builds its shallow nest in trees and bushes and usually lays 3-5 eggs.{{cite book |author=Whistler, H. |year=1949 |title=Popular Handbook of Indian Birds |edition=Fourth |publisher=Gurney and Jackson |pages=12–14 |chapter=The Indian Tree-pie |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/popularhandbooko033226mbp#page/n43/mode/2up/}}{{cite book |title=The nests and eggs of Indian birds. Volume 1| author=Hume, A. O. |year=1889 |publisher=R. H. Porter |location=London |pages=19–22 |chapter=Dendrocitta rufa (Scop.) The Indian Tree-pie |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924000044978#page/n41/mode/2up/}}

The rufous treepie has a wide repertoire of calls, but a bob-o-link or ko-tree call is most common. A local name for this bird kotri is derived from the typical call while other names include Handi Chancha and taka chor (="coin thief").{{cite book |author=Finn, F. |year=1904 |title=The Birds of Calcutta |publisher=Thacker, Spink & Co. |location=Calcutta |pages=10–13 |chapter=The Magpie |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/birdsofcalcutta00finnrich#page/10/mode/2up/}}

A blood parasitic protozoan Trypanosoma corvi{{cite journal|author1=Nandi, N. C. |author2=Bennett, G. F. |name-list-style=amp |year=1994 |title= Re-description of Trypanosoma corvi Stephens and Christophers, 1908 emend Baker, 1976 and remarks on the trypanosomes of the avian family Corvidae |journal= Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz |volume=89 |pages=145–151 |doi=10.1590/S0074-02761994000200005 |issue=2|doi-access=free}} and Babesia has been reported from this species.{{cite journal |author=Peirce, M.A. |title= A taxonomic review of avian piroplasms of the genus Babesia Starcovici, 1893 (Apicomplexa: Piroplasmorida: Babesiidae) |doi=10.1080/002229300299507 | journal= Journal of Natural History |year=2000 |volume=34 |pages=317–332 |issue=3|s2cid= 85053646 }} Trematode parasites, Haplorchis vagabundi, have been found in their intestines.{{cite journal|last1=Baugh|first1=S.C. |title=Contributions to our knowledge of digenetic trematodes VI |journal=Parasitology Research |volume=22 |issue=4 |year=1963 |doi=10.1007/BF00260191| pages=303–315 |pmid=13966962|s2cid=11066470 }} An acanthocephalan parasite Centrorhynchus lancea is also known.{{cite journal|author1=Duggal, C. L.|author2=Solomon, S.|author3=Ambardar, S. |name-list-style=amp |year=1986|title=On some acanthocephalans parasitizing birds of Punjab |journal=Research Bulletin of the Panjab University (Science) |volume=37|issue=3–4|pages=25–31}} A species of quill mite Syringophiloidus dendrocittae is known to live in the feathers of rufous treepies.{{cite journal|journal=Bulletin van Het Koninlijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen - Entomologie |volume=70|pages=33–70| title=New genera and species of quill mites of the family Syringophilidae (Acari, Prostigmata)|author1=Fain A |author2=Bochkov, A. |author3=Mironov, S. |name-list-style=amp |year=2000}}

{{Reflist|2}}

{{Commons category|Dendrocitta vagabunda}}

{{Wikispecies|Dendrocitta vagabunda}}

• [http://ibc.lynxeds.com/species/rufous-treepie-dendrocitta-vagabunda Photos and other media]
• [http://www.nrm.se/forskningochsamlingar/djur/vertebratzoologi/faglar/fagelsamlingar/gyldenstolpestypsamling/tattingar/corvidae/nrm568407.3542.html Type specimen of sakeratensis]

{{Corvidae|1}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q282256}}

rufous treepie

Category:Birds of South Asia

Category:Birds of Indochina

rufous treepie

rufous treepie