Indian Cuckooshrike vs White-bellied Cuckooshrike

Indian Cuckooshrike

Coracina macei

Medium68 gForest

Adult males have a broad and well-marked eye stripe which is pale in females. The throat and breast are grey in males and the abdomen and flanks are finely barred. Females have the throat and breast also with barring which extends further down and lacks the prominent whitish vent of the male. They are mostly insectivorous but also feed on figs and forest fruits and usually fly in small groups with a bounding flight just above the forest canopy.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Daniel Z · CC BY 4.0

White-bellied Cuckooshrike

Coracina papuensis

Medium63 gWoodland

This species exhibits a short black mask extending from the beak to the eyes (lores) but not beyond with a fine white rear eye-ring. The head and upperparts including upper wings are pale blue-grey with tail feathers tending towards darker grey. Despite the name, the belly can be white to grey depending on region and subspecies. The subspecies Coracina papuensis robusta can present with a dark morph that has extensive black plumage on the neck and chest that can be barred at the edges. There is little variation between the sexes.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: (c) Roy Lowry, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Roy Lowry · cc-by

Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Indian Cuckooshrike and White-bellied Cuckooshrike.