THE ORIENTAL MAGPIE ROBIN (copsychus saularis)

There will always be room in my home for a couple of Oriental Magpie Robins. I never can get tired of them. They are hardworking songbirds, hardy and quite easy to maintain in captivity. They always bring back fond memories of the activities involved with keeping this species during my early years when they were abundant in Singapore. It is nostalgic to see and hear them at plantation fringes and roadsides or to catch glimpses of their familiar flight pattern from a distance, every time I travel up north into West Malaysia.

This is Neil Sedjawa (alias Kopi-O), my black bellied Oriental Magpie Robin. I enjoy his subsongs and semi-loud songs most of all. He is from Java, and belongs to the subspecies c. saularis amoenus. The other 2 subspecies of black bellied oriental magpie robins are c. saularis adamsi and c. saularis pluto from northern and eastern Borneo. In terms of song variety and melody, Neil is superior to my white bellied subspecies from the Malaysian Peninsula, the c. saularis musicus. Sometimes, the white bellied will interbreed with the black bellied. In Java, javensis x amoenus and in Borneo, musicus x adamsi/pluto.






Neil really loves singing to the rain. Rainy days are never gloomy with him around.










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