Blue-faced Malkoha

Phaenicophaeus viridirostris (Jerdon, 1840)

Blue-faced Malkoha, Phaenicophaeus viridirostris, is a cuckoo of southern India and Sri Lanka, where it lives in scrub, open forest and deciduous woodland. It is a bird of the Oriental Region and is found in peninsular India south of Baroda and Cuttack, with records from Trichy district in Tamil Nadu, and in Sri Lanka it is limited to the plains. It has dark grey upperparts with a green or blue sheen, a long tail with white-tipped graduated feathers, a blue patch around the eye and an apple-green bill. The throat is streaked and spiny-looking, and the sexes look the same.

Order

Cuculiformes

Family

Cuculidae — Cuckoos

Breeding range

Oriental Region: s India and Sri Lanka