Description
Adult Asian Paradise-flycatchers are 19–22 cm long. Their heads are glossy black with a black crown and crest, their black bill round and sturdy, their eyes black.
Female are rufous on the back with a greyish throat and underparts. Their wings are 86–92 mm long.
Male Asian Paradise-flycatchers change the colour of their plumage in the first few years of their lives. Sub-adult males look very much like females but have a black throat and blue-ringed eyes. As adult they develop up to 24 cm long tail feathers. Their rufous plumage moults into white with the central pair of tail feathers growing up to 30 cm long streamers that droop. There are adults called rufous-morph with rufous wings and tail but white underparts.
Behaviour and ecology
Asian Paradise-flycatchers are noisy birds uttering sharp skreek calls. They have short legs and sit very upright whilst perched prominently, like a shrike. They are insectivorous and hunt in flight in the understorey. In the afternoons they dive from perches to bathe in small pools of water.
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