Collared Falconet

About the Collared Falconet

The collared falconet (Microhierax caerulescens) is a species of bird of prey in the family Falconidae. It is found in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, ranging across Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

Its natural habitat is temperate forest, often on the edges of broadleaf forest. It is 18 cm (7.1 in) long. Rapid wingbeats are interspersed with long glides. When perched, it is described as being "rather shrikelike". The first description by a European ornithologist was published by George Edwards in 1750, as "the little black and orange colour'd Indian hawk". It was from a specimen that had been collected in Bengal and sent to the king's physician, Richard Mead. In 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus used the illustration and description by Edwards to formally describe the species under the binomial name Falco cærulescens. In 1760 the French naturalist Mathurin Jacques Brisson also used Edwards' publication to describe le Faucon de Bengale. Although the white collar was not mentioned, the English ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe believed that this was the collared falconet.... Wikipedia →