About Terpsiphone paradisi incei (Gould, 1852)
Adult Indian paradise flycatchers (Terpsiphone paradisi incei) measure 19–22 cm (7.5–8.7 in) in body length. They have glossy black heads with a black crown and crest, a sturdy, rounded black bill, and black eyes. Females have rufous-colored backs, with greyish throats and underparts; their wing length ranges from 86–92 mm (3.4–3.6 in). Young males closely resemble females, but differ in having a black throat and blue-ringed eyes. As they mature into adults, they develop tail feathers up to 24 cm (9.4 in) long, with two central tail feathers growing into drooping streamers that can reach 30 cm (12 in) in length. Young males have rufous plumage and short tails, and acquire their long tails during their second or third year. Adult males are either predominantly bright rufous on their upperparts, or predominantly white, and some individuals show intermediate plumage between these two forms. Long-tailed rufous individuals typically lack shaft streaks on their wing and tail feathers, while white individuals have black shaft streaks, and sometimes black edges on their wing and tail feathers. In the early 1960s, before Blyth's and Amur paradise flycatchers were recognized as separate species, researchers examined 680 long-tailed male specimens held in the collections of the British Museum of Natural History, Chicago Natural History Museum, Peabody Museum, Carnegie Museum, American Museum of Natural History, United States National Museum, and Royal Ontario Museum. The specimens were collected from almost the entire range of the species, though some areas were poorly represented. The relative frequency of rufous and white plumage types varies by geographic location: rufous males are rare in the extreme southeastern portion of the species' range. Asymmetrically patterned intermediate plumage occurs across the Indian range, and to a lesser extent in China, while intermediates are rare or absent throughout the rest of the species' range. Long-tailed males with different intermediate plumage patterns have been collected across specific regions: predominantly rufous with some white in wings and tail, collected in Turkestan, Kashmir, northern India, Punjab, Maharashtra, Sikkim, and Sri Lanka; predominantly rufous with some white in wings, collected in Iran, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Punjab, Kashmir, northern and central India, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Nepal; predominantly rufous with some white in tail, collected in Punjab, northern and central India, Kolkata, Sri Lanka, and the Upper Yangtze Valley in China; predominantly white with some rufous in tail and wings, collected in Kashmir, Maharashtra, Sichuan, and North China; predominantly white with some rufous in tail, collected in Maharashtra and Fuzhou, China; predominantly white with the back partly rufous, collected in Punjab and Chennai; and individuals moulting from rufous into white plumage, collected in North Bihar. Three possible explanations for this plumage variation have been proposed: males may be polymorphic for rufous and white plumage color; rufous individuals may be sub-adults; or there could be two sympatric species that are only distinguishable by male plumage. The Indian paradise flycatcher is a migratory bird that winters in tropical Asia. In southern India and Sri Lanka, especially the highlands and western parts of Sri Lanka, both locally breeding populations and visiting migratory individuals are present during the winter season. The breeding season of the Indian paradise flycatcher runs from May to July. This species is socially monogamous, and both males and females participate in nest-building, incubation, brooding, and feeding young. The incubation period lasts 14 to 16 days, and the nestling period lasts 9 to 12 days. Nests are sometimes built near a breeding pair of drongos, which help deter predators. Females lay up to four eggs in a neat cup-shaped nest built from twigs and spider webs on the end of a low branch. One recorded case of interspecific feeding has been documented, where Indian white-eyes fed paradise flycatcher chicks.
