Thrushes (Turdidae)

Oriental Magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis) - HBW 10, p. 765

French: Shama dayal German: Dajaldrossel Spanish: Shama Oriental
Other common names: Magpie Robin

Taxonomy: Gracula Saularis Linnaeus, 1758, Bengal, India.
May form a superspecies with C. sechellarum and C. albospecularis. Races form three basic groups: “nominate group” (white belly, white in tail), “amoenus group” (black belly, white in tail), and “mindanensis group” (white belly, black tail). Described race problematicus from Borneo is an intergrade between musicus and pluto. Several other named races are poorly differentiated or part of clinal variation, or based on very small sample sizes: erimelas (NE India E to Indochina) and prosthopellus (China and Hainan) synonymized with nominate, and zacnecus (Simeulue I), nesiarchus (Nias I), masculus (Batu Is), pagiensis (Mentawai) and javensis (W Java) with musicus. Proposed Philippine race deuteronymus (Luzon), separated on lightly barred buff wash of lower underparts of female, also regarded as too weak to merit recognition and thus merged with mindanensis. Eight subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

saularis (Linnaeus, 1758) - NE Pakistan and India E to S & E China (including Hainan I), S to Thailand and Indochina.
ceylonensis P. L. Sclater, 1861 - S India and Sri Lanka.
andamanensis Hume, 1874 - Andaman Is.

See all 8 subspecies

saularis (Linnaeus, 1758) - NE Pakistan and India E to S & E China (including Hainan I), S to Thailand and Indochina.
ceylonensis P. L. Sclater, 1861 - S India and Sri Lanka.
andamanensis Hume, 1874 - Andaman Is.
musicus (Raffles, 1822) - S Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia S to Sumatra (including islands of Simeulue, Nias, Batu, Belitung, Bangka), W Java and S & W Borneo.
amoenus (Horsfield, 1821) - E Java and Bali.
pluto Bonaparte, 1850 - N, E & SE Borneo and Maratua I.
adamsi Elliot, 1890 - extreme N coastal Borneo and adjacent islands.
mindanensis (Boddaert, 1783) - Philippines.