Random Bird Thursday: A Judgemental Songbird with a Long Tail

SPEAKER_1 (0:07)

Hello and welcome, this is The Science of Birds.

Ivan Phillipsen (0:16)

I am your host, Ivan Phillipsen. The Science of Birds podcast is a lighthearted exploration of bird biology for lifelong learners.

It's the best day of the week, and that is Random Bird Thursday.

Random Bird Thursday episodes are relatively short and sweet. And what we're doing here is we are putting the spotlight on a bird species that we won't probably cover in a full-length episode. Lucky for us, there are over 11,000 bird species in the world, so Random Bird Thursday episodes give us an opportunity to celebrate maybe one of the lesser known species. Now, in case you're wondering, I've said this before, but this is truly random. I do not pick these birds myself. I hit my random bird selector button, and whatever species pops up, that's what I talk about. With the caveat that I do reject species sometimes, if I plan on doing a longer episode about that species, if I've already talked about it at length earlier, things like that. Otherwise, it is random. Don't pick these birds. We are at the mercy of fate here. So, let's go ahead and hit that button.

Okay, so what we have is the Himalayan prinea. The Himalayan prinea, and that bird has the scientific name Prinea crinidura. This is a little brown bird that lives, as you might guess, in Asia.

We have our species, so let's get into it.

This is a relatively small songbird, and it has a body shape typical for a songbird. However, the first thing you're probably going to notice with a bird is that it has a very long tail. The tail is longer than the body is itself. The central tail feathers are the most elegant. They're the longest, and they're relatively broad, and cross their entire length. But looking at the tail in total, we see that the feathers are graduated. They're longer in the middle, and they get shorter as you move to the outside. Now, in breeding males, abrasion of the tail over the course of the breeding season eventually causes the tip of the tail to break up a bit and fray. So the tail ends up with a sort of fuzzy, shorter, washed out appearance.

Now as I said, this bird is small, but it is actually large for Aprenia. It's about 6.3 inches long, or 16 centimeters, and that of course includes the tail. But there is sexual size dimorphism. So the male is larger. The female's body length is more like 5.7 inches or 14.4 centimeters.

The bill, too, has a more or less generic songbird shape, but it is a bit short and thick relative to other Aprenia's, but it still has a pointed tip. The bill is all black in a breeding male. However, females and non-breeding males have a brown upper mandible, so the upper beak, and it has a dark tip, and then the lower mandible is pale pinkish or yellowish.

Besides the long tail, the other feature you're probably going to notice right away is that this indeed is a little brown bird. It's dark gray-brown above, and there's some black streaking on the crown and the mantle, and that contrasts with a relatively pale underside, where there's a whitish buff belly. In the non-breeding season, males and females look relatively similar. They have a pale supercilium, so that's that white eyebrow stripe, and they have some streaking, and they're just lighter overall. But during the breeding season, the male develops a dark blackish face, and his crown is darker. He doesn't have the pale supercilium, and there's also some dark modeling on his breast. The iris color and the eyes of Himalayan printias are pale yellowish, or brown, or orange, or even a kind of a fleshy gray color. So kind of all over the place. And the legs and feet are pinkish or brownish pink. Pretty standard.

The song is relatively simple. It has a raspy, coarse sound, and it's basically a simple phrase that's repeated over and over again. The phrase is described as chit-sureet. Chit-sureet, chit-sureet. And it's been described as the sound of a knife or a blade being sharpened on a grindstone. Maybe not the most pleasant sound for some people, but yeah. How about you decide for yourself. Here is the sound of a singing Himalayan prinja. This was recorded in Uttarakhand, India.

In terms of overall behavior, this is a relatively shy bird. It's rather skulky.

Himalayan perineas are found usually by themselves or in pairs, and they're climbing around in dense grass and shrubs. If they get spooked, if they flush, one of these perineas will fly kind of low and have a jerky movement to its flight pattern just for a short ways, and then it kind of darts back into cover. And after that, good luck getting it out of there.