Common Woodshrike

Anglicans call it the Common Woodshrike, a translation for which could be common woods bird. The French name, Tephrodorne de Pondichéry, is perhaps more evocative or geographically appropriate, reminding us of classroom and commercial posts! Its Latin, and therefore French, name was attributed to German naturalist J.F. Gmelin (1748-1804), who placed the bird on the Coromandel coast, where Pondichéry is located. An exotic name and a perhaps changing classification: tephrodornithidae, prionopidae and, at the base, campephagidae (cuckoos). Let the scientists do their work. Our Common Woodshrike from Pondichéry measures from 15 to 18 cm and presents several shades of brown. Its cap is grey-brown, a wide white eyebrow outlines a black eye, encircled by a yellow orbital circle; parotids are very dark brown, almost black. The black beak has the external mandible slightly curved downward. The throat is white-cream, one can see some dark vertical stripes that are less pronounced on the abdomen; the underside is rather light. The nape and mantle are grey-brown, the coverts and primaries grey-brown, darker, the greater coverts show fine white edgings, a very marked white mark appears on the undertail coverts. The rectrices are dark brown, almost black. The legs are black. The female is identical to the male, with a lighter mask on the parotids. The juveniles have the upper coverts and flight feathers brown with white marks.