Black Bulbul

What the Black Bulbul sounds like

Recorded by Minori Kichise · Uncertain · 輔仁大學, Xinzhuang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via xeno-canto

ID tip

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Black Bulbul

One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 10 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is April, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Black Bulbul

The map shades 13 countries with regular records, and 3 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Recorded as a rare visitor in Sri Lanka, Macao SAR China, South Korea.

About the Black Bulbul

The black bulbul, also known as the Himalayan black bulbul or Asian black bulbul, is a member of the bulbul family of passerine birds. It is found primarily in the Himalayas, its range stretching from Pakistan eastward to Southeast Asia. It is the type species of the genus Hypsipetes, established by Nicholas Aylward Vigors in the early 1830s. There are a number of subspecies, mostly varying in the shade of the body plumage which ranges from grey to black, and some also occur in white-headed morphs, as also suggested by its specific epithet leucocephalus, literally "white head". The legs and bill are always rich orange-red.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Brown-eared BulbulHypsipetes amaurotisReaching a length of about 28 cm (11 in), brown-eared bulbuls are grayish-brown, with brown cheeks (the "brown ears" of the common name) and a long tail. Square-tailed BulbulHypsipetes ganeesaThe square-tailed bulbul lacks the black streak behind the eye and on the ear-coverts that is present in the black bulbul. Philippine BulbulHypsipetes philippinusThe Philippine bulbul is a songbird species in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae.

Side by side: Black Bulbul vs Brown-eared Bulbul · Black Bulbul vs Square-tailed Bulbul