About Coracina melaschistos (Hodgson, 1836)
Coracina melaschistos is a medium-sized dark cuckoo-shrike with unbarred grey underparts. Males are dark grey on the upper body, with contrasting black wings and tail, and wide white feather tips on the underside of the tail. Females are paler and have faint barring on the underside. Its call is a loud twit twit to we that descends in pitch. Its diet is made up mainly of invertebrates, specifically including caterpillars, beetles, and other bugs. This species nests in trees. It breeds during summer in mountain habitats at elevations between 300 and 2450 meters, and makes altitudinal or southward migrations for winter. Its distribution extends from Northeast Pakistan through the lower Himalayan region (including Uttarakhand, Nepal, and Arunachal Pradesh) into the hills of northeastern Myanmar, and continues on to China and Southeast Asia. In winter, it occurs in the foothills; it occasionally travels longer distances southwest to northern parts of peninsular India, and east to Orissa, Bengal, and Bangladesh, and may travel as far south as Kerala. It breeds in deciduous and broad-leaved evergreen forest, while wintering in open forest and groves. It occurs singly or in pairs, and is known to join mixed-species feeding parties.
