Maria Capra - Pied Fantail

As I looked at her,

she flew away,

her tail looking like a splatter

of black and white

- The City Warbler, 2013

That, in an amateur poetic way (with all due apologies to Wordsworth, who must have just turned in his grave) is the Pied Fantail for you. I spotted my first pair today morning - straight out of the blue. Or shall I say green? For after the recent rains, the Washington Sycip park was resplendent, with every possible shade of green.



Pied Fantail (Rhipidura nigritorquis) - also called Maria Capra (Image by Trinket Canlas - Birding Philippines)

Right there, a black bird flew out of the bushes, rapidly. Jumping here and there, like a restless child (or like many adults, you may say!). As it hopped around a bit on the grass, I could make out a tail which was different from any I have seen so far - like a peacock in a black and white movie!

I rushed back to my field guide.

Could it have been a Shrike? A Flycatcher? Perhaps a Magpie Robin? Nay - they all looked different from what I had seen... or could remember having seen!

Then I went back to refer to my bigger field guide - the baby of Vint Cerf - with some help from a certain Larry Page and Sergei Brin! Yes - you are right... A google image search made things a bit easier.  (Trivia : Interestingly the google spell check reminds me that google should be spelt with a capital G, thus Google. So the question that seeks to be asked is .. when did Google become a proper noun?)

A different key word here
A few distinguishing features...
Could adding the tail in the search terms help?
It was black and white, for sure.
Voila - that is it!

The Philippine Pied Fantail (Rhipidura Nigritorquis) - called so, due to tail which spreads out - fan like, is a common bird found in the tropics. However, it had taken me a long time to see a bird said to be common! It is found all over South East Asia - from Brunei and Indonesia (you would have never guessed by the Java in it's name. Ha ha!) right upto Thailand and Philippines.

Javanica or Nigritorquis?
For more than a month, I laboured under the misconception that I was seeing Rhipudura Javanica. It was after some more looking around (and most probably an accidental search result - you never know what was accidental on the net) that I realised that it really was the Philippine pied fan tail (Rhipidura nigritorquis) that I was watching the antics of! I have made appropriate corections in this psot thence, where ever it was possible.

The Pied Fantail is found all over South East Asia
 (Image from this really cool map on http://maps.iucnredlist.org 
Correction Sept 2013 - this bird was really nigritorquis - not javanica!)

The Pied fantail is not a rare bird. By conservation standards, it falls under LC - Least concern. Which is a cute way of saying that Mama Pied Fantail and Papa Pied Fantail are having a lot of fun, and have lots of kids to show it!

However, I like it's Colloquial Filipino name more -


Maria Capra.



Next - Interview with the Pied Fantail (aka Maria Capra)

References -

Much of the information used in this post is from the below references, to whom I am indebted. If not for them, I would not have been able to figure out any of the above No copyright violations are intended. All  information posted under Creative Commons License.

1. Pied Fantail - Wikipedia
2. Rhipidura Javanica - On the IUPN Red list (Birdlife International)
3. Birding Philippines on the Pied Fantail
4. Google
5. Wild bird club of Philippines