Black Bulbul

The black bulbul, also called the Himalayan or Asian black bulbul, is 24–25 cm long with a long tail, and the legs and bill are always rich orange-red. It is found primarily in the Himalaya, its range stretching from Pakistan eastward to Southeast Asia. The body plumage ranges from slate grey to shimmering black, depending on the race, and some subspecies occur in white-headed morphs, as its specific epithet leucocephalus, white head, suggests. It is the type species of the genus Hypsipetes (Wikipedia, general species account).

Sexes are similar, but young birds lack the crest, have whitish underparts with a grey breast band and a brown tint to the upperparts. Birds can be quite noisy, with loud cheeping, mewing and grating calls, and the Himalayan form has been reported to make a call resembling a goat kid, throwing its neck back. Both sexes take part in building the cup nest in a fork of a tree or bush, and two or three eggs are usual. SoIB 2023 rates it a Low conservation priority, a resident and altitudinal migrant with a Large range of about 250,000 km² and an increase of about 52% over the long term (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).