The sparrows in the yard were first displaced by the red whiskered bulbuls. And they in turn were shut out by the magpie robins. It is the magpie robins that hold court in the yard now. Not even their mothers would call them pretty, but they have great character. They are bold and lively, unafraid to appear in the open. They can be observed hunting insects on the ground or perched on an observation post such as a low branch, the wall, or the clothesline. They are not intimidated by humans.
The name "magpie robin" deserves attention. It was the British who came up with the name, as the bird combined features of the European magpie and the European robin. Their common name in India is Dhyal. The magpie robin is the national bird of Bangladesh, where it is known as doyel/doel and appears on their currency notes as well.
Their typical call, which I hear often, is a swee-swee whistle, repeated again and again. I've also heard the harsh hissing krrshhhhh, their mobbing call, used against a cat in the vicinity. It worked; the cat, which was taking a nap on a wall, got up and walked away, disgusted. The magpie robin is quite a songster, and used to be trapped and kept in cages for their singing ability, a practice that decimated the birds in Singapore by the 1970s. Magpie robins began returning to Singapore in the 1980s, thanks to determined efforts by conservationists. They used to be captured in India too, for their singing, until the legislative ban in 1972.
The magpie robin was the favorite bird of the Indian conservationist Zafar Futehally, who titled his memoir (edited by Ashish and Shanthi Chandola) The Song of the Magpie Robin. The bird is featured on the artistic cover of the book, a beautiful painting by the reputed wildlife artist Carl D'Silva. Zafar writes: "After months of silence in the non-breeding season, it attempted to sing amateurishly in early February. Slowly and steadily its initial twitterings coalesced into a powerful melodious song, which was also its weapon to keep away intruders who tried to share the resources of its domain. By mid-April the song of the maestro consisted of almost seventeen notes. Delivered early morning from the topmost branch of a casuarina tree in our compound, this was certainly the delight of the season." The songs apparently have dialects that vary by region. (While on the subject of books, I must mention that a lot of the information I present here on the magpie robin is from the splendid Wildlife Great and Small of India's Coromandel by Tim Wrey.)
It's on my to-do list: locate a YouTube video that presents the complete musical repertoire of the magpie robin. There are many bird calls I hear in the neighborhood that I suspect are made by the magpie robin.
The photo that tops the post was taken from a first-floor window. The blue-gray coloration indicates that it's a female; the upper area of males is entirely black. Click on the photo to enlarge it.
Book cover photo source: Goodreads
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