Irena - Asian Fairy-Bluebird, Philippine Fairy-Bluebird (Paperback)

Chapters: Asian Fairy-Bluebird, Philippine Fairy-Bluebird. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 18. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Asian Fairy-bluebird, Irena puella, is a medium-sized, arboreal passerine bird. This fairy-bluebird breeds across tropical southern Asia from the Himalayan foothills, India and Sri Lanka east to Indonesia. This species is found in moist hill-forest. Two or three eggs are laid in a small cup nest in a tree. It was described by British ornithologist John Latham in 1790. The only other member of the genus is the Philippine Fairy-bluebird I. cyanogastra. The adult Asian Fairy Bluebird is about 27 cm long. The male has glossy, iridescent blue upperparts, and black underparts and flight feathers. The female and first year male are entirely dull blue-green. The Asian Fairy Bluebird eats fruit, nectar and some insects. Its call is a liquid two note glue-it. Male and female Cotigao NP, Goa, IndiaThe Asian Fairy Bluebird measures around 10.5 cm long, with the tail measuring 4.2 cm, the wing 5.1 cm, and tarsus 0.85 cm; the bill is 1.2inches from gape. The iris is crimson and eyelids pinkish; the bill, legs and claws are black, and mouth a flesh- colour. Marked sexual dimorphism is evident. The male is a shining ultramarine-blue with lilac reflections on its upper plumage, lesser wing-coverts, and under tail-coverts, while the sides of its head and the whole lower plumage are deep black; greater wing-coverts, quills, and tail black, and some of the coverts tipped with blue, and the middle tail-feathers glossed with blue. The upper plumage, the lesser wing-coverts, and the lower tail-coverts of the female are brownish blue, with the edges of the feathers brighter. The middle tail-feathers and the outer webs of all the others, except the outer pair, like the upper ...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=67635