That eccentric bird: The “Gini Hora”

by K. G. H. Munidasa

I have no doubt that many of the readers may, one time or another, have seen the Ceylon Paradise Flycatcher, popularly called the “Gini Hora”, though I am nevertheless certain that only a few among them could claim of having ever seen its white cousin, the Indian Paradise Flycatcher. And of the two the latter is the more attractive.

In India there is a legend why the adult flycatcher drops its chestnut colour and adopts a white plumage.

Among our villagers too, there is a belief that the white-phase (“Kiri Hora”) is a rare resident bird, which annually sheds its long tail streamers, and goes into hiding in the heart of the jungle until a new tail is grown.

The fact is that the White Paradise Flycatcher, Terpsiphone paradisi paradisi is purely a migrant species arriving here from the Indian mainland in Winter (December to February) and going there back again during the following Spring (March to May), to breed.

Anybody who is looking at a White Paradise Flycatcher for the first time is liable to take for granted that it was born like that. It is not so! Irrespective of sex, the young of both the Indian and Lankan races are generally chestnut in plumage with blue-black head and whitish underparts.

After the first annual moult, the two central tail feathers of the male begin to lengthen and grow to a length of 12 to 15 inches, with the second moult. In the third moult the male of the Indian race gradually changes from chestnut to white plumage, and by the fourth moult it becomes completely white, except the head, throat and crest which take up a glossy blue-black colour.

The male of the Lankan race, Terpsiphone paradisi ceynensis and the females of both the races continue in the chestnut phase throughout their life. The females do not however, carry long tail streamers. Yet males of the Lankan race have occasionally been found to sport white tail streamers or even one chestnut and the other white.

The Paradise Flycatcher (Sub-Family: Monarchiae) is found in Turkestan, Afghanistan and Baluchistan, through the greater part of India to Burma and still further eastwards. Three forms are described from the Indian region, out of which the typical race paradisi occurs in the hills and dales of peninsular India and visits Sri Lanka during the North-East Monsoon.

The race leucogaster, which differs from the first mentioned in size and details of colorations inhabits Afghanistan, Turkestan, Kashmir and through the Himalayas to East Nepal. The other Nicobarica, which has the head, neck and breast ashy-grey with only the cap and crest black is found in Assam, migrating to the Nicobars and Andaman Islands, in winter. The race ceylonensis is endemic to this island.

Within its breeding rage the Paradise Flycatcher moves about a great deal. Thus with different locations in India it holds different status. In one place it is a “Summer Visitor”, a “Passage Migrant” in another, and still in another locality it is called a “Scarce Winter Visitor”.

This seasonal movement is evident even with the Lankan race. For instance, in the North-East Monsoon period Paradise Flycatchers disperse all over wet and the dry zones, and in the hills to a level of at least 3,700 feet elevations.

About March to April they begin to move out again and concentrate in the forest tracts of the drier areas, where they pair and breed, during May and June.