Ормандағы шалқақөрік (Ormandagy shalqaqörik)

Species of bird

The forest wagtail (Dendronanthus indicus) is a medium sized passerine bird in the wagtail family Motacillidae. It has a distinctive plumage that sets it apart from other wagtails and has the habit of wagging its tail sideways unlike the usual up and down movements of the other wagtail species. It is the only wagtail species that nests in trees. It is found mainly in forested habitats, breeding in the temperate parts of east Asia and wintering across tropical Asia from India to Indonesia.

The forest wagtail was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the wagtails in the genus Motacilla and coined the binomial name Motacilla indica. The specific epithet is from Latin indicus meaning "Indian". Gmelin based his account on "La Bergeronnette gris des Indes" that had been described in 1782 by the French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat. The forest wagtail is now the only species placed in the genus Dendronanthus that was introduced in 1844 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth. The name Dendronanthus combines the Ancient Greek dendron meaning "tree" with the genus Anthus that was introduced for the pipits by Johann Matthäus Bechstein in 1805. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. The forest wagtail has a single note call ('pink pink') given often while on the ground or even in high flight. In addition, the birds have a soft lilting song. The brown shrike (Lanius cristatus confusus) sometimes imitates the calls of the forest wagtail. It has been recorded as a vagrant in the Maldives and Australia. It was formerly thought to winter only in southwestern India, passing through the rest of the peninsula on migration. But now it has been shown to winter in all of the southern part of the peninsula in addition to southwestern India.

These wagtails are found singly or in small groups. They often forage in the trees and capture insects along the branches of trees. They may also forage on the ground like a pipit and when disturbed, it flies up into the trees with a sharp pink note. They can climb steep branches and will run rapidly along horizontal branches. They roost in the company of other wagtails among reeds. Apart from its unusual plumage pattern and habitat, the forest wagtail differs from its Motacilla relatives in its strange habit of swaying its tail from side to side, not wagging it up and down like other wagtails. The Japanese name Jokofury sekirei (=sideways swinging wagtail) ) is based on this habit.