![]() Concentration of Common Iora Common Iora is a small passerine bird found across the tropical Indian states like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Central Highlands and Jharkhand with populations showing plumage variations, some of which are designated as subspecies. Behaviour of Common Iora Common Iora was found in scrub and forest. It can be easily detected from its loud whistles and the bright colours. Breeding Season of Common Iora During the breeding season, the male Common Iora display by fluffing up their feathers and spiral in the air appearing like a green, black, yellow and white ball. Sizes of Common Iora Ioras have a pointed and notched beak with a culmen that is straight. Common Iora is sexually dimorphic, males in the breeding season have a black cap and back adding to a black wing and tail at all seasons. Adult Common Iora The female Common Iora have greenish wings and an olive tail. The undersides of both are yellow and the two white bars on the wings of the males are particularly prominent in their breeding plumage. The males in breeding plumage have a very variable distribution of the black on the upperparts and can be confused with Marshall's Iora, however, the latter always has white tips to the tail. ![]() The nominate subspecies Common Iora is found along the Himalayas and males of this population are very similar to females or have only a small amount of black on the crown. In North-Western India, septentrionalis is brighter yellow than others and in the northern plains of India humei males in breeding plumage have a black cap and olive on the upper mantle. In South-Western India and Sri Lanka multicolour have the breeding males with a jet black cap and mantle. The forms in the rest of southern India are intermediate between multicolour and humei with more grey-green on the rump (formerly considered as deignani but now used for the Burmese population). Population of Common Iora There are several other populations across Southeast Asia that are designated as subspecies including philipi of southern China and northern Thailand/Laos, deignani of Myanmar, horizoptera of southern Myanmar and the island chain of Sumatra, cambodiana of Cambodia, aeqanimis of Palawan and northern Borneo, viridis of Borneo and scapularis of Java and Bali. Habitats of Common Iora The forage of Common Iora is in trees in small groups, gleaning among the branches for insects. They sometimes join mixed species feeding flocks. The call is a mixture of churrs, chattering and whistles, and the song is a trilled wheeeee-tee. They may sometimes imitate the calls of other birds such as drongos. |
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