Common Iora - Behaviour and Ecology

Behaviour and Ecology

Call of Common Iora Ioras forage in trees in small groups, gleaning among the branches for insects. They sometimes join mixed species feeding flocks. The call is a mixture of churrs, chattering and whistles, and the song is a trilled wheeeee-tee. They may sometimes imitate the calls of other birds such as drongos.

During the breeding season, mainly after the monsoons, the male performs an acrobatic courtship display, darting up into the air fluffing up all his feathers, especially those on the pale green rump, then spiralling down to the original perch. Once he lands, he spreads his tail and droops his wings. Two to four greenish white eggs are laid in a small and compact cup-shaped nest made out of grass and bound with cobwebs and placed in the fork of a tree. Both male and female incubate and eggs hatch after about 14 days. Nests predators include snakes, lizards, crow-pheasant and crows. Nests may also be brood-parasitized by the Banded Bay Cuckoo.

Ioras moult twice in a year and the plumage variation makes them somewhat complicated for plumage based separation of the populations.

A species of Haemoproteus, H. aethiginae, was described from a specimen of the Common Iora from Goa.

• A. t. multicolor- Male calling in Hyderabad, India.

• A. t. multicolor- Male in Hyderabad, India.

• A. t. multicolor- Male in Hyderabad, India.

• A. t. multicolor- Female in Hyderabad, India.

• A. t. multicolor- Female in Hyderabad, India.

• A. t. multicolor- Female in Narsapur, Medak district, India.

• A. t. multicolor- Male in Hyderabad, India.

• A. t. multicolor- Female in Narsapur, Medak district, India.

• A. t. multicolor- Male calling in Shamirpet, Rangareddy district, Andhra Pradesh, India.

• Adult breeding male - Singapore

• Adult breeding male - Singapore