![/Images/pixel.gif"]() |
 |
|
|
|
|
| Cuckoo-shrike |
|
 |
| Photograph Colin Taylor
|
 |
| Cuckoo-shrike
female (left) and male |
|
Description
|
| Scientific
Name |
Coracina typica
|
| English
Name |
Cuckoo shrike
|
| Local
English Name |
Mauritius Graybird, Blackbird Cook
|
| French
Name |
Campéphage de Maurice
|
| Local
French Name |
Echenilleur de Maurice, Merle Cuisinier
|
| Creole
Name |
Kuzinye
|
| Habitat |
Remnants
of native forests around Black River Gorges; Bel Ombre
forest
|
| Geographic
Range |
Mauritius
|
| First
Description |
Hartlaub, 1865
|
| Status |
Vulnerable less than 200 pairs
|
 |
| |
|
| |
|
Details
|
| Food |
Insects in vegetation. Occasionally robs nests of
other birds, such as the Pink Pigeon, sucking the
eggs
|
| Reproduction |
Two or three pale-green spotted eggs laid in a rough,
cup-shaped nest of thin plant parts bound by cobwebs
and placed high in trees. Both parents sit on the
eggs. Nest predated by rats.
|
| Remarks |
The sexes are different, the female being rust-brown,
the male basically grey. Not common but numbers have
seemed stable for some time around 200 pairs
Illustrated on a 20 cent stamp and a calendar published
by the State Commercial Bank.
|
| |
| In the years 1970, its population was
estimated at approximately 200 couples. Its rarefaction
is related on the clearings and the destruction of its
habitat. The Mauritius Cuckoo shrike, which Creoles
call blackbird cook, lives in the canopy of the island
dense forests. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
References
|
|
|
|
Stafford, R. J., & J. Beaumont. 1996. Observations on the
biology of the Mauritius Cuckoo-shrike Coracina typica.
Ostrich 67: 15--22. (Royal Holloway Inst. Environ. Res.,
Huntersdale, Callow Hill, Virginia Water, Surrey, GU25 4LN,
UK.) {ROL #80}
Michel, Claude, Birds of Mauritius, Rose Hill (Mauritius)
1992, ISBN 99903-0-140-9
|
 Top
|
Back