Rufous Treepie (Dendrocitta vagabunda) [XC627917]
by Pranad Patil from Mae Ping National Park (Thung Kik), Li District, Lamphun, Thailand (call)
Rufous Treepie (Dendrocitta vagabunda) [XC810493]
by Marc Anderson from Bardiya National Park, Bardiya, Lumbini Province, Nepal (call)
Subspecies
Formerly known as Dendrocitta rufa. Perhaps has a distant relationship with Collared Treepie (Dendrocitta frontalis). Recent investigations of type specimens have revealed that proposed name vernayi (hitherto used for south-eastern Indian population, based on birds from Nallamalai Range, in southern Kurnool) is a junior synonym of pallida. The type locality of pallida (originally given erroneously as western Himalayas) has been fixed to Chennai (in Tamil Nadu), and behni is a new name for western Indian population that formerly went under name pallida. Geographical variation clinal, subspecies intergrading. Some of listed subspecies possibly of questionable validity.
The following 9 subspecies are recognised:
bristoli Paynter, 1961 - Eastern Pakistan (south to Karachi) and eastern in Himalayan foothills to northern India (Dehra Dun, in Uttarakhand).
vagabunda (Latham, 1790) - Uttarakhand east to Bangladesh and north-eastern India, southern in peninsula to northern Andhra Pradesh.
behni Steinheimer, 2009 - Western and central India from southern Gujarat (eastern Surat District) south to central Karnataka and east to mountain ridges of eastern western Ghats.
parvula Whistler & Kinnear, 1932 - South-western India (southern Karnataka and Kerala).
pallida (Blyth, 1846) - South-eastern India southern from eastern Ghats (south of R Godavari).
sclateri Baker, ECS, 1922 - Western and northern Myanmar.
kinneari Baker, ECS, 1922 - Central and eastern Myanmar, southern China (south-western Yunnan) and north-western Thailand.
saturatior Ticehurst, 1922 - Southern Myanmar and south-western Thailand.
sakeratensis Gyldenstolpe, 1920 - Central, eastern and south-eastern Thailand, Cambodia, southern Laos and central and southern Vietnam.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet