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{{short description|Species of bird}}
{{speciesbox
| name = Blue-faced malkoha
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| status_ref = <ref name="iucn">{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International. |year=2024 |title=''Phaenicophaeus viridirostris'' |volume=2024 |article-number=e.T22684101A263989431 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2024-2.RLTS.T22684101A263989431.en |access-date=29 June 2025}}</ref>
| image = Blue-faced Malkoha Shreeram M V.jpg
| image_caption = Blue-faced Malkoha from [[Mysore]], [[Karnataka]], [[India]]
| genus = Phaenicophaeus
| species = viridirostris
| authority = ([[Thomas C. Jerdon|Jerdon]], 1840)
}}

The '''blue-faced malkoha''' ('''''Phaenicophaeus viridirostris''''') or '''small green-billed malkoha''', is a non-parasitic [[cuckoo]] found in the scrub and deciduous forests of peninsular [[India]] and [[Sri Lanka]]. It has a waxy, dark, blue-grey plumage on its upperparts and has a long tail with graduated white-tipped feathers. The throat and chin are dark with spiny pale feathers that are branched. The lower belly is a dull creamy to rufous colour. The bill is apple green, and a naked patch of blue skin surrounds the eye. The sexes are alike. The blue-faced malkoha is a bird of open forests and scrub jungle.

== Description ==
[[File:Blue faced Malkoha 2014-04-12 12-53.JPG|thumb|Like all cuckoos, malkohas have zygodactyle feet, two toes pointing forward and two to the back.|alt=|left]]
A largish species at 39 cm, its back and head are dark grey with an oily green or blue gloss, and the dark tail has graduated feathers tipped with white. The belly is pale ochre to grey. The feathers of the chin and throat are branched (unlike in ''[[Green-billed malkoha|Phaenicophaeus tristis]]'') with the branched tips being pointed and slightly yellowish giving the throat a streaked and spiny appearance. There is a large blue patch around the eye, with a white fringed red iris, and the bill is apple green. The sexes are indistinguishable by external appearance. Birds from Sri Lanka have a broader white tip to the tail feathers. Malkohas are generally very silent but will sometimes produce a low croaky ''kraa'' when flushed.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/37019308|title=A history of the birds of Ceylon. Volume 1|author=Legge, W. Vincent|year=1880|volume=1 |place=London|pages=258–259}}</ref><ref name=hbk>{{cite book|pages=233–234|title=Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan. Volume 3. Stone Curlews to Owls.|author1=Ali, Salim| author2=Ripley, S. Dillon| edition=2| publisher=Oxford University Press|place=Delhi| year=1981}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|pages=231–232 |url=https://archive.org/stream/birdsindia03oaterich#page/230/mode/1up|year= 1895| title= The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Birds. Volume III| author=Blanford, W.T.| place=London| publisher=Taylor and Francis}}</ref> Young birds have dull and non glossy upperparts and some brown feathers in their wing.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48430987|title=A catalogue of the birds in the collection of the Bombay Natural History Society-10 Cuculidae| author=Abdulali, Humayun| journal= Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society|volume=68| year=1971|pages=756–772}}</ref>

They nest within a thorny bush, building a thick platform of twigs lined with green leaves and lay a clutch of two, rarely three, chalky white [[Egg (biology)|egg]]s.<ref name=hbk /><ref>{{cite book|url= https://archive.org/stream/BakerFbiBirds4/BakerFBI4#page/n206/mode/1up|pages=177–178| title=The Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma. Birds. Volume 4|edition=2| author=Baker, E.C. Stuart| year=1927| place= London| publisher=Taylor and Francis}}</ref> The breeding season is somewhat extended and unclear but many nest have been taken from March to August.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Biddulph,C.H. |year=1936|title= The Small Green-billed Malkoha [''Rhopodytes viridirostris'' (Jerdon)]|journal= J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. |volume=39|issue=1|page= 178|url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/47601890}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://archive.org/stream/journalofbombayn121900bomb#page/53/mode/1up/|title=The Birds of North Kanara. Part II| author=Davidson, J.|pages=43–72|journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society|volume=12|year=1898|issue=1}}</ref> Two out of 31 specimens trapped in a study were found to have ticks of the genus ''Haemaphysalis spinigera''.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Rajagopalan, P.K.|year=1972|title=Ixodid ticks (Acarina: Ixodidae) parasitizing wild birds in the Kyasanur Forest disease area of Shimoga District, Mysore State, India|journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society|volume=69|pages=55–78|url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48288893}}</ref>[[File:Smallgreenbilledmalkoha Gwillim.jpg|thumb|left|A painting of the blue-faced malkoha by Lady [[Elizabeth Gwillim (bird artist)|Elizabeth Gwillim]] (1763–1807), made before the bird had been given its scientific name]]
The blue-faced malkoha takes a variety of [[insect]]s, [[caterpillar]]s and small [[vertebrate]]s. It usually forages in the undergrowth.<ref name="hbk" />

== Taxonomy ==
[[File:Rhopodytes Phaenicophaeus.jpg|thumb|right|The nostril shapes used to separate ''Rhopodytes'' and ''Phaenicophaeus'']]
The species was described in 1840 by T.C. Jerdon based on a specimen that he collected at the base of [[Coonoor]] ghats. He placed it in the genus ''[[Zanclostomus]]'' but saw affinities to ''Phaenicophaeus''.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Jerdon, T.C.|url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/46452227| pages=207–239|journal=Madras Journal of Literature and Science|volume=11| year=1840|title=Catalogue of the Birds of the Peninsula of India}}</ref> A year earlier [[Thomas Campbell Eyton|T.C. Eyton]] described a species from Malaya that he called ''Phaenicophaeus viridirostris''<ref>{{cite journal|author=Eyton, T.C.|title=Catalogue of a Collection of Birds from Malaya, with descriptions of the new species|journal=Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London|pages=100–107 |year=1839 |url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/30571348}}</ref> but that referred to a female<ref>{{cite journal|title=Notices and descriptions of various new or little known species of birds|last=Blyth|first=Edward|journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|pages=428–476 |volume=16| year=1847 |url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40130611}}</ref> of the already described ''[[Phaenicophaeus chlorophaeus]]''.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/49587521|title=Museum Heineanum: Verzeichniss der ornithologischen Sammlung des Oberamtmann Ferdinand Heine. Volume 4. Part 1.|author1=Cabanis, Jean|author2=Heine, Ferdinand|year=1863|volume=4 |pages=58–59}}</ref> The species is included in the genus ''Phaenicophaeus'' although it was formerly placed in ''Rhopodytes'' as the two genera were separated on the basis of the shape of the nostril, round in ''Rhopodytes'' and slit in ''Phaenicophaeus''<ref>{{cite journal|title=On the Cuculidae of the Ethiopian Region|author=Sharpe, R.B.|year=1873| journal=Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London|volume=1873 |pages=578–624|url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28504879}}</ref> but ''Rhopodytes'' was subsequently subsumed into the older genus name ''Phaenicophaeus''. A study of the aortic arches of birds found that this species has a peculiar modification in the two dorsal carotids are reduced to paired ligaments "ligamenti ottleyi" which enter the hypapophysial canal.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Glenny, Fred H.| title=Modifications of pattern in the Aortic arch system of birds and their phylogenetic significance| volume=104| issue=3346| year=1955| journal=Proceedings of the United States National Museum| pages=525–621| doi=10.5479/si.00963801.104-3346.525|url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15385773}}</ref> The genus is placed in the subfamily Phaenicophaeinae.

==Distribution ==
The blue-faced malkoha is found in peninsular India south of [[Vadodara|Baroda]] (the [[Dang District, India|Surat Dangs]]<ref>{{cite journal|author=Abdulali, Humayun |year=1953| title= The distribution of the Greenbilled Malkoha (''Rhopodytes viridirostris'' Jerdon)| journal= J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc.|volume= 51|issue=3| pages= 737–738 |url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48202897}}</ref>) and [[Cuttack]] in a range of habitats from semi-evergreen, dry deciduous and open scrub forest.<ref name=hbk/> In Sri Lanka it is restricted to the plains.<ref name=":0" />
This bird has been recorded in Trichy district of Tamilnadu, india

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q783272}}

[[Category:Phaenicophaeus|blue-faced malkoha]]
[[Category:Birds of India]]
[[Category:Birds of Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Birds described in 1840|blue-faced malkoha]]

Blue-faced malkoha - Revision history

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