Paradise flycatcher

The genus Terpsiphone was introduced by the German zoologist Constantin Gloger in 1827.[2] The type species was subsequently designated as the Indian paradise flycatcher.[3] The name is from the Ancient Greek terpsi "delighting in" and phonos "voice".[4]

The genus contains 17 species:[5][6]

Image	Common Name	Scientific name	Distribution
	Bedford's paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone bedfordi	Democratic Republic of the Congo.
	Rufous-vented paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone rufocinerea	Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and north-western Angola
	Red-bellied paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone rufiventer	intra-tropical forests of Africa.
	Annobón paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone smithii	Equatorial Guinea.
	Bates's paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone batesi	Angola, Cameroon, Gabon to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
	African paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone viridis	Africa south of the Sahara Desert and also the Arabian Peninsula
	Indian paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone paradisi	tropical Asia.
	Blyth's paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone affinis	China to Sumatra and Melanesia.
	Tenggara paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone floris[6]	Lesser Sundas
	Amur paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone incei	China, Manchuria and Primorsky Krai in the Russian Far East.
	Black paradise flycatcher or Japanese paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone atrocaudata	China, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, other parts of the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Sumatra, Indonesia.
	Blue paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone cyanescens	Philippines (Palawan)
	Rufous paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone cinnamomea	Indonesia and the Philippines.
	São Tomé paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone atrochalybeia	São Tomé Island
	Malagasy paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone mutata	Comoros, Madagascar, and Mayotte.
	Seychelles paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone corvina	La Digue, Seychelles
	Mascarene paradise flycatcher	Terpsiphone bourbonnensis	Mauritius and Réunion.

The male Malagasy paradise flycatcher has the typical blue eye-ring and long tail

The paradise flycatchers are generally small birds, around 18 to 21 cm (7.1–8.3 in) in length and weighing 12 to 23 g (0.42–0.81 oz). They have a medium length grey or blueish bill which is broad and hooked at the end and is surrounded by stiff rictal bristles. The inside of the mouths of paradise-flycatchers are brightly coloured, being either yellow or green. The tails are long, particularly in many species where the male has a massively elongated pair of middle tail feathers. These tail streamers are 195 mm long in the male São Tomé paradise flycatcher and 412 mm long in the male Indian paradise flycatcher.[11] The function of the long tail is assumed to be related to sexual selection, with females choosing males based on the length of the tail.[12] Not all species have long tail streamers, for example the blue paradise flycatcher of Palawan in Asia and the Bedford's paradise flycatcher of montane Africa do not have exceptionally long tails. In most species the tail is longer than the wing, even in the shorter tailed females. The eye is surrounded by an eyering that is a blue thin wattle (slightly more pronounced in some species like the rufous paradise flycatcher).

The plumage of the paradise flycatchers is sexually dimorphic, with rufous, white and black being the most common colours; one species has blue plumage and a few have traces of maroon.[11] Sexual dimorphism can be pronounced (and of course more so in the long-tailed males) or subtle; the female Bedford's paradise flycatcher is identical to the male except slightly duller. Some species sport prominent crests. In some species, for example the Malagasy paradise flycatcher, the males have two or more colour morphs.[13]

A white-morph male Indian paradise flycatcher incubating on the nest

The paradise flycatchers have the widest distribution of any of the monarch flycatchers, ranging across sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and East Asia.[11] At the northern extreme of its range it reaches Korea and Afghanistan. The species also occurs on a number of islands, including those of Indonesia and the Philippines, Taiwan, and Japan, as well as Madagascar, the Mascarenes and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean and São Tomé off Africa's Atlantic coast.

Several species of paradise flycatcher are migratory.[11] The Japanese paradise flycatcher is almost entirely migratory, breeding in Korea and Japan and wintering in the Philippines, Malaysia and Sumatra. It does however also occur in Taiwan, where the population is apparently resident. The Indian paradise flycatcher ranges across the Indian subcontinent and adjoining regions. The movements of the other species are not fully understood, but most are thought to be resident. Several subspecies of the African paradise flycatcher are apparently intra-African migrants, but little is known about these movements.

The paradise flycatchers inhabit a range of habitat types, from rainforest to montane forest, woodlands, savanna, mangroves, riparian forest, deciduous forests and bamboo groves, some species will also move into gardens and cultivated habitat.