MISTAKEN IDENTITY OF THE BLACK BELLIED ORIENTAL MAGPIE ROBIN

On several occasions recently, I have came across local advertisements selling the black bellied oriental magpie robins as seychelles magpie robins. I am quite sure that the sellers did not have intentions to mislead but had mistakenly thought that their birds were actually the seychelles magpie robins, the confusion arising from pictures on the internet.

The seychelles magpie robin (copsychus sechellarum) is an endangered species.
Below are some information regarding the seychelles magpie robin.

The seychelles magpie robins are one of the rarest birds on earth and they can only be found on five seychelles islands, namely Fregate, Cousin, Cousine, Aride and Denis. At one time around 1990, there were only 23 birds counted and these were found only on Fregate Island. Habitat destruction and predation from introduced domestic cats were cited amongst the reasons for their decline. They were then classified as "critcally endangered" under the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Animals. In 1990, a recovery programme was launched to save these birds from extinction, initially managed by Birdlife International and Royal Society for Protection of Birds from 1990 to 1997. The management of the programme was passed to Nature Seychelles from 1998 onwards. The recovery programme has been very successful and the seychelles magpie robin was downlisted in 2005, from "critically endangered" to "endangered" under the IUCN's Red List when its population had exceeded 50 adult individuals for more than 5 years. From an official population count in 2006, there were a total of 178 specimens found on the four islands - Fregate, Cousin, Cousine and Aride.

The population on Cousin Island was on a sharp decline since 2005, from 47 birds to just 27 due to competition from the exploding population of moorhens on the island. The seychelles magpie robin population was recently also extended to Denis Island through the translocation of 20 birds taken from Fregate and Cousin.

Although their conservation status has improved since the launch of the recovery programme, the seychelles magpie robin is still one of the rarest birds in the world.

The all-black magpie robin we keep as a songbird here is the black bellied oriental magpie robin (copsychus saularis) and not the seychelles magpie robin.

http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=6638&m=0

http://www.nation.sc/index.php?art=13400

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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