White-eared Bulbul

The white-eared bulbul is rotund, with a brownish-grey body and a relatively long tail that starts black and ends in white tips. The head is black with a large white spot on the cheeks, and the vent is bright yellow. It is found in south-western Asia from India to the Arabian Peninsula: the western reaches of India, much of Pakistan, southern Afghanistan, coastal Iran, the two-river basin of Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain (Wikipedia, general species account).

It has a set of notes rather than a uniform song, described as pleasant and fluid. Usually the females build the nest, a messy cup of thin twigs, dry grass and plant fibres in a hidden spot on trees. The clutch is two to four eggs, usually three, creamy white with purple spots; the female incubates them for 13–14 days in Pakistan or 10.5–12.5 days in Iraq, and both parents feed the chicks, which fledge after 9–11 days in Iraq. SoIB 2023 rates it a Low conservation priority, a resident of non-specialised habitat with a Large range of about 359,000 km² and stable trends (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).