Black-winged Cuckooshrike

The black-winged cuckooshrike, also called the lesser grey or dark grey cuckooshrike, is found in South to Southeast Asia. It has a broad-based black bill, grey upperparts, black wings, a white vent and a graduated white-tipped tail. It is a medium-sized, dark cuckooshrike with unbarred grey underparts; the male is dark grey above with contrasting black wings and tail (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds from north-east Pakistan through the lower Himalaya (Uttarakhand, Nepal, Arunachal Pradesh) into the hills of north-east Myanmar and on to China and Southeast Asia. It breeds in summer in the mountains at 300–2,450 m and migrates altitudinally or south in winter, occasionally as far as northern peninsular India, Odisha, Bengal and Bangladesh, and even Kerala. It is found singly or in pairs and joins mixed feeding parties. SoIB 2023 rates it a Low conservation priority, a resident and within-India migrant of forest and plantation with a Moderate range of about 82,800 km² and stable trends (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).