10 thoughts on “Large Blue-flycatcher (Cyornis magnirostris): Revise global status?”
Baruah, P., Dalvi, S., & Hatibaruah, B., 2018. Notes on field identification, vocalisation, status, and distribution of Large Blue Flycatcher Cyornis magnirostris and Hill Blue Flycatcher Cyornis banyumas whitei in north-eastern India. Indian BIRDS. 14 (4): 102โ108.
Details of its breeding range, narrow altitude band where it’s found in summer, and threats to the habitats in summer range covered here.
Thanks Praveen. Status in it’s breeding range is equally concerning. Effective breeding range is much smaller than it’s potential winter range. And within it’s small breeding range, it appears to be highly localized as even large stretches of suitable habitat are devoid of this species year after year (including inside protected areas). And while there hasn’t been any recent studies on changing land use patterns, it is obvious that it’s entire breeding range is under threat from horticulture and bamboo harvesting.
There is a confirmed Cambodian record (https://ebird.org/checklist/S76928013) between at least 28 Nov + 2 Dec 2020 from Bokor National Park within the wider Cardamom Mountain Rainforest Ecoregion where significant suitable habitat exists. If the Cardamoms were within the wintering range of the species the possible suitable winter habitat would be increased significantly. However deforestation rates within this ecoregion are similar to those with the existing known wintering range in the Thai-Malay penisula so this may not impact the presumed rates of decline in available winter habitat.
There are also (at least one possible more) recent records of passage birds from the vicinity of Phnom Penh. This clearly extends the mapped passage distribution.
I agree that the species’ global conservation status should be “NT,” as suggested by Sa-ar et al 2021.
However, one of the regular wintering sites for the flycatcher is Hat Sompaen, Ranong, Thailand, which is threatened by mining. Nevertheless, there is still no information on whether the mining zone will be expanded or not, and data from S Myanmar, the lower part of southern Thailand, and Peninsular Malaysia is still needed to confirm whether the conservation Status is actually โVUโ or not.
This includes SW Cambodia, where the status is unclear.
The first and only record of Large Blue-flycatcher is Bangladesh was in April 2014 from Kaptai National Park (SE). It is possible that the species could be a regular visitor to the southeastern hill forests which are not well explored and rapidly degrading.
Lowland (semi-)evergreen forest in southern Thailand favoured by this species as wintering grounds has largely been converted to oil palm and rubber plantations. This species appears to occur at low densities even in its preferred habitats, being less common than congeners ๐๐บ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ช๐ด ๐จ๐ญ๐ข๐ถ๐ค๐ช๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด and ๐. ๐ด๐ถ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ด.
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion. We greatly appreciate the time and effort invested by so many people in commenting. The window for consultation is now closed and we are unable to accept any more comments until 21 February 2022. We will now analyse and interpret the new information, and we will post a preliminary decision on this speciesโs Red List status on this page on 21 February 2022, when discussions will re-open.
Based on available information, our preliminary proposal for the 2022.1 Red List would be to adopt the proposed classifications outlined in the initial forum discussion.
There is now a period for further comments until the final deadline on 27 February 2022, after which the recommended categorisations will be put forward to IUCN.
The final 2022.1 Red List categories will be published on the BirdLife and IUCN websites in July 2022, following further checking of information relevant to the assessments by both BirdLife and IUCN.
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion. We greatly appreciate the time and effort invested by so many people in commenting. The window for consultation is now closed and we are unable to accept any more comments. We will analyse and interpret the new information, and we will post a final decision on this speciesโ Red List status on this page on 7 March 2022.
Recommended categorisation to be put forward to IUCN
The final categorisation for this species has not changed. Large Blue-Flycatcher is recommended to be listed as Near Threatened, approaching the threshold for listing as threatened under Criteria A3c+4c.
Many thanks for everyone who contributed to the 2022.1 GTB Forum process. The final 2022.1 Red List categories will be published on the BirdLife and IUCN websites in July 2022, following further checking of information relevant to the assessments by both BirdLife and IUCN.
Baruah, P., Dalvi, S., & Hatibaruah, B., 2018. Notes on field identification, vocalisation, status, and distribution of Large Blue Flycatcher Cyornis magnirostris and Hill Blue Flycatcher Cyornis banyumas whitei in north-eastern India. Indian BIRDS. 14 (4): 102โ108.
Details of its breeding range, narrow altitude band where it’s found in summer, and threats to the habitats in summer range covered here.
Thanks Praveen. Status in it’s breeding range is equally concerning. Effective breeding range is much smaller than it’s potential winter range. And within it’s small breeding range, it appears to be highly localized as even large stretches of suitable habitat are devoid of this species year after year (including inside protected areas). And while there hasn’t been any recent studies on changing land use patterns, it is obvious that it’s entire breeding range is under threat from horticulture and bamboo harvesting.
There is a confirmed Cambodian record (https://ebird.org/checklist/S76928013) between at least 28 Nov + 2 Dec 2020 from Bokor National Park within the wider Cardamom Mountain Rainforest Ecoregion where significant suitable habitat exists. If the Cardamoms were within the wintering range of the species the possible suitable winter habitat would be increased significantly. However deforestation rates within this ecoregion are similar to those with the existing known wintering range in the Thai-Malay penisula so this may not impact the presumed rates of decline in available winter habitat.
There are also (at least one possible more) recent records of passage birds from the vicinity of Phnom Penh. This clearly extends the mapped passage distribution.
I agree that the species’ global conservation status should be “NT,” as suggested by Sa-ar et al 2021.
However, one of the regular wintering sites for the flycatcher is Hat Sompaen, Ranong, Thailand, which is threatened by mining. Nevertheless, there is still no information on whether the mining zone will be expanded or not, and data from S Myanmar, the lower part of southern Thailand, and Peninsular Malaysia is still needed to confirm whether the conservation Status is actually โVUโ or not.
This includes SW Cambodia, where the status is unclear.
The first and only record of Large Blue-flycatcher is Bangladesh was in April 2014 from Kaptai National Park (SE). It is possible that the species could be a regular visitor to the southeastern hill forests which are not well explored and rapidly degrading.
Lowland (semi-)evergreen forest in southern Thailand favoured by this species as wintering grounds has largely been converted to oil palm and rubber plantations. This species appears to occur at low densities even in its preferred habitats, being less common than congeners ๐๐บ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ช๐ด ๐จ๐ญ๐ข๐ถ๐ค๐ช๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด and ๐. ๐ด๐ถ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ด.
Near Threatened (at least) is an appropriate category in my opinion, as stated in Sa-ar et al. 2021 (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352775267_Records_of_Large_Blue-flycatcher_Cyornis_magnirostris_from_their_non-breeding_grounds_March_2011-January_2021).
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion. We greatly appreciate the time and effort invested by so many people in commenting. The window for consultation is now closed and we are unable to accept any more comments until 21 February 2022. We will now analyse and interpret the new information, and we will post a preliminary decision on this speciesโs Red List status on this page on 21 February 2022, when discussions will re-open.
Preliminary proposal
Based on available information, our preliminary proposal for the 2022.1 Red List would be to adopt the proposed classifications outlined in the initial forum discussion.
There is now a period for further comments until the final deadline on 27 February 2022, after which the recommended categorisations will be put forward to IUCN.
The final 2022.1 Red List categories will be published on the BirdLife and IUCN websites in July 2022, following further checking of information relevant to the assessments by both BirdLife and IUCN.
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion. We greatly appreciate the time and effort invested by so many people in commenting. The window for consultation is now closed and we are unable to accept any more comments. We will analyse and interpret the new information, and we will post a final decision on this speciesโ Red List status on this page on 7 March 2022.
Recommended categorisation to be put forward to IUCN
The final categorisation for this species has not changed. Large Blue-Flycatcher is recommended to be listed as Near Threatened, approaching the threshold for listing as threatened under Criteria A3c+4c.
Many thanks for everyone who contributed to the 2022.1 GTB Forum process. The final 2022.1 Red List categories will be published on the BirdLife and IUCN websites in July 2022, following further checking of information relevant to the assessments by both BirdLife and IUCN.