Family PYCNONOTIDAE G.R. Gray, 1840

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• Pycnonotidae Boie, 1826.

Introduction

This large family has its centre of distribution in Africa and Asia. Some 118 species are represented in 22 genera (Dickinson 2003). It is represented in Australia by one introduced species, the Red-whiskered Bulbul, Pycnonotus jocosus, that has rapidly expanded through coastal New South Wales. Small but scattered populations occur in urban Queensland and Victoria. A second species, the Red-vented Bulbul, P. cafer, formerly occupied a small area of metropolitan Melbourne but subsequently died out. Arboreal by nature, pycnonotids feed by gleaning, hang-gleaning and probing; they occasionally feed on the ground about the base of trees and shrubs. Bulbuls feed on fruits and insects and do minor damage to domestic fruits and garden plants.

They are gregarious, usually found in loose family groups during warmer months and forming large congregations during the cooler periods. They appear to be local nomads and residents, following predetermined patterns seeking food.

In Australia, bulbuls inhabit areas of human habitation, orchards, and surrounding temperate rainforests. They are primarily birds of the outer canopies. With their upright singing stance, and short, upright crest, they are often seen at the crown of street trees.

Nesting is active in spring and summer. Birds construct a small-cupped nest of rootlets and bark with a base of leaves; this is lined with finer rootlets. The nest is placed in the fork of a thick shrub. A completed clutch varies in number from two to four. Each egg has a white base colour and is heavily covered overall by reddish brown spots and dots.

Diagnosis

'… bills have raised operculate nostrils, copious rictal bristles and usually a terminal tomial notch on the maxilla, the posterior margin of the nostril is covered internally with a characteristic sheet of bone or connective tissue (Olson 1989). The ectethmoid fossa is usually doubled, and the humeral fossa only incipiently so (Bock 1962), as in many sylvoids (and also corvoids).' (Schodde & Mason 1999).

Diagnosis References

Bock, W.J. 1962. The pneumatic fossa of the humerus in the Passeres. Auk 79: 425-443

Olson, S.L. 1989. Preliminary systematic notes on some Old World passerines. Rivista Italiana Ornitologia, Milano 59: 183-195

Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1999. The Directory of Australian Birds : Passerines. A Taxonomic and Zoogeographic Atlas of the Biodiversity of Birds in Australia and its Territories. Collingwood, Australia : CSIRO Publishing x 851 pp.

General References

Dickinson, E.C. (ed.) 2003. The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. London : Christopher Helm 1039 pp.

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