Sunda Pied Fantail

The Sunda pied fantail is an active black, grey and white songbird 17.5–19.5 cm long. Adults have a blackish head with a small white eyebrow, white throat, dark breast band, grey-brown upperparts and white underparts. The dark fan-shaped tail has broad white tips on the outer feathers, while the central feathers remain dark. Juveniles are duller grey and show rufous edging on the upperparts and wing coverts (Birds of Singapore).

Its range runs from southern Myanmar and Thailand through Indochina to southern Vietnam, then south through the Malay Peninsula to Sumatra and Borneo. It occupies forest, scrub, mangroves, gardens and farmland, often close to water. Pairs forage restlessly in the understorey, spreading the tail and making short sallies after flying insects; they may join mixed feeding flocks or follow large mammals that disturb prey. A neat cup nest is woven from fibres and grass and fastened with spider silk (Wikipedia, general species account; Birds of Singapore).