Ratchet-tailed Treepie

The ratchet-tailed treepie is a dark, long-tailed member of the crow family and the sole species in the genus Temnurus. Its graduated tail has unusually narrow, notched feather tips that produce the characteristic ratchet-like outline. The head and body are dark grey to blackish, while the wings show contrasting pale areas in flight. A sturdy bill and alert, upright stance reflect its corvid affinities. It is also known as the notch-tailed treepie (Wikipedia, general species account).

The species has a notably fragmented Southeast Asian distribution: separate populations occur in southern Thailand, southern Vietnam, central and northern Vietnam with Laos, and on Hainan. It inhabits tropical moist broadleaved evergreen lowland forest, secondary forest and scrub. Birds usually move through trees and dense vegetation rather than open ground, sometimes travelling in pairs or small parties. The combination of restricted forest habitat and disjunct range makes locality especially useful when identifying this unusual treepie (Wikipedia, general species account).