Top 20 Most Common Bird in Cotabato

Cotabato, a land of diverse ecosystems in the Philippines, is teeming with a wide variety of bird species. The 20 most common are notable for their unique adornments, intriguing behaviour, and remarkable adaptive skills reflecting the profound ecological diversity of the region. Their vivid colors, vocal performances, and specialized beaks each tell a tale of dynamic evolution.

Most Common Bird

Yellow-vented Bulbul

1. Yellow-vented Bulbul

The eyebrow buzz (Pycnonotus goiavier), is a common songbird from the family of the buulbuuls. The eyebrow bulge is found in large parts of Southeast Asia and the Indian Archipelago.
Large-billed Crow

2. Large-billed Crow

The overall size (length: 46–59 cm; 18–23 in.) and body proportions vary regionally. In the far northeast in Japan, the Kuriles and the Sakhalin peninsula, it is somewhat larger than the carrion crow. All taxa have a relatively long bill with the upper one quite thick and arched, making it look heavy and almost raven-like. Generally, all taxa have dark greyish plumage from the back of the head, neck, shoulders and lower body. Their wings, tail, face, and throat are glossy black. The depth of the grey shading varies across its range.
Olive-backed Sunbird

3. Olive-backed Sunbird

In most subspecies, the underparts of both male and female are bright yellow, the backs are a dull brown colour. The forehead, throat and upper breast of the adult male is a dark, metallic blue-black. In the Philippines the males of some subspecies have an orange band on the chest, in Wallacea and northern New Guinea some subspecies have most of the underparts blackish, and in southern China and adjacent parts of Vietnam most of the underparts of the male are greyish-white.
Ridgetop Swiftlet

4. Ridgetop Swiftlet

The ridgetop swiftlet is 9–10 cm (3.5–3.9 in) in length with a square tail. The back and upper surface of the wings are a dark dull blue with a moderate green gloss. The rump is sometimes slightly paler due to the white margins of feathers forming the uppertail coverts. The throat and upper breast are dark grey with fine white scalloping merging into larger greyish chevrons over the lower breast and flanks, becoming white over the belly. There is sometimes a tuft of small feathers on the hallux, the rear facing toe. This species lacks the white spots on the inner webs of the tail feathers that are present in some Collocalia species.
Red-keeled Flowerpecker

5. Red-keeled Flowerpecker

The red-keeled flowerpecker or red-striped flowerpecker (Dicaeum australe) is a species of bird in the family Dicaeidae. It is endemic to the Philippines. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. The black-belted flowerpecker (D. haematostictum) was formerly regarded as a subspecies of this bird.
Asian Glossy Starling

6. Asian Glossy Starling

The Malayan purple starling (Aplonis panayensis) is a starling species from the Indian Subcontinent and the Indian Archipelago. It is a common bird that sometimes occurs en masse in cities. The bird is one of the noisiest bird species.
Guaiabero

7. Guaiabero

Measuring around 15 cm (5.9 in) in length, it is a smallish, stout parrot with a large bill and stubby tail. The sexes differ in plumage. The adult male is green overall, with more yellowish underparts and a pale blue face and collar and wing primaries. The rump is yellow-green. The bill is grey-blue and with a darker tip, and the eyes dark brown. The adult female is also greenish, with a yellow collar and less blue on the face. It has black crescent markings on the nape and rump. Its bill is paler grey.
Collared Kingfisher

8. Collared Kingfisher

The collared kingfisher is 23 to 25 cm (9.1 to 9.8 in) long and the male weighs 51 to 90 g (1.8 to 3.2 oz), while the female weighs 54–100 g (1.9–3.5 oz). It varies from blue to green above while the underparts can be white or buff. There is a white collar around the neck, giving the bird its name. Some races have a white or buff stripe over the eye while others have a white spot between the eye and bill. There may be a black stripe through the eye. The large bill is black with a pale yellow base to the lower mandible. Females tend to be greener than the males. Immature birds are duller than the adults with dark scaly markings on the neck and breast. It has a variety of calls which vary geographically. The most typical call is a loud, harsh and metallic "kee-kee-kee" repeated several times.
Black-crowned Night-heron

9. Black-crowned Night-heron

The shorter, stockier version of their long-legged heron counterparts, the black-crowned Night-heron is most active in the early evening hours, giving them their name. The most commonly-found heron across the world, you can spot them in wetlands, though they may be more difficult to notice than the taller heron species. Studying their nests can get a bit smelly- startled nestlings tend to eject their food when they are approached by people.
Golden-bellied Gerygone

10. Golden-bellied Gerygone

The golden-bellied gerygone (Gerygone sulphurea) is a species of bird in the family Acanthizidae. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical mangrove forest.
Barn Swallow

11. Barn Swallow

A familiar sight in rural and semi-open areas, the small barn Swallow can often be spotted by its distinctly graceful flight as it travels low over fields. Seemingly unbothered by having human neighbors, they nest unafraid in barns, garages, beneath bridges or wharves. Interestingly enough, they have come to prefer these locations so much that you are unlikely to spot a nest in a place that is not a human-made structure.
Philippine Coucal

12. Philippine Coucal

The Philippine coucal (Centropus viridis) is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is endemic to the Philippines.
Spotted Dove

13. Spotted Dove

The spotted Dove is a medium-sized bird that is swift in flight. It prefers to live year-round in warm climates in suburban areas, especially in parks. Their nests are mostly made out of sticks and they like to dine on insects and seeds.
Brown Shrike

14. Brown Shrike

This shrike is mainly brown on the upper parts and the tail is rounded. The black mask can be paler in winter and has a white brow over it. The underside is creamy with rufous flanks and belly. The wings are brown and lack any white "mirror" patches. Females tend to have fine scalloping on the underside and the mask is dark brown and not as well marked as in the male. The distinction is not easy to use in the field but has been tested with breeding birds in Japan where the female can be identified from the presence of a brood patch. The use of multiple measurements allows discrimination of the sex of about 90% of the birds. Subspecies lucionensis has a grey crown shading into the brown upperparts and the rump appears more rufous than the rest of the upper back. The tail is more brownish and not as reddish as in the red-backed shrike. Younger birds of lucionensis have a brown crown and lack the grey on the head. Subspecies superciliosus has a broad white supercilium and a richer reddish crown. The tail is redder and tipped in white. A number of confusing forms are known from central Asia where the populations of cristatus, isabellinus and collurio overlap. The taxonomy has been in a state of flux and some forms such as phoenicuroides formerly considered as subspecies of L. cristatus have been moved to the species L. isabellinus. Subspecies lucionensis has been recorded interbreeding with superciliosus in Ishikawa, Japan while superciliosus has interbred with Lanius tigrinus in central Japan.
Plain Bush-hen

15. Plain Bush-hen

The plain bush-hen (Amaurornis olivacea) is a species of bird in the family Rallidae. It is endemic to the Philippines.
Tawny Grassbird

16. Tawny Grassbird

The tawny grassbird (Cincloramphus timoriensis) is a songbird species of the grass- and bush-warbler family (Locustellidae). It was formerly placed in the "Old World warbler" assemblage. It is found in Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines.
Amethyst Brown Dove

17. Amethyst Brown Dove

According to Constantino (2011), the amethyst brown dove is strikingly alike with white-eared brown dove due to the presence of subocular white lines just below the eye. However, it can be distinguished from the rest as they are rare deep-woods birds with colors that are generally darker brown than P. leucotis, with bills that are noticeably longer and heavier than its tarsus and an extensive bluer purple patch on its mantle. Some of its physical features include a grey tinge and purplish brown underparts, rich tan undertail-coverts, dark and white sub-ocular eye-lines, reddish-brown chin and throat with darker streaking, shading on breast to medium to darkish dull brown with narrowly edged dark back and scapulars. They also have pink flesh around the eye with amethyst or purple iridescence on the nape.
Zebra Dove

18. Zebra Dove

The zebra Dove is a small dove found in dense forests, open fields, farmlands, and similar suburban areas. Unlike other dove species, this ground-dwelling bird likes to forage alone or in pairs, but not in large groups. The call of this slender dove is often described as very pleasant. Very common in urban areas, they are quite comfortable around humans.
Striated Heron

19. Striated Heron

Adults have a blue-grey back and wings, white underparts, a black cap, a dark line extends from the bill to under the eye and short yellow legs. Juveniles are browner above and streaked below. These birds stand still at the water's edge and wait to ambush prey, but are easier to see than many small heron species. They mainly eat small fish, frogs and aquatic insects.
Coleto

20. Coleto

The coleto (Sarcops calvus) is a starling species (family Sturnidae) in the monotypic genus Sarcops. It is endemic to the Philippines. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest. In Central Visayas, this bird is commonly known as the sal-ing. In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the coleto in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in the Philippines. He used the French name Le merle chauve des Philippines and the Latin Merula Calva Philippensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the coleto. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Gracula calva and cited Brisson's work. The specific name is from Latin calvus "bald" or "without hair". This species is now the only member of the genus Sarcops that was introduced by the English ornithologist Authur Walden in 1875. The name combines the Ancient Greek words sarx, sarkos "flesh" and ōps, ōpos "face" or "complexion". Three subspecies are recognised: S. c. calvus (Linnaeus, 1766) – north Philippines S. c. melanonotus Ogilvie-Grant, 1906 – central and south Philippines S. c. lowii Sharpe, 1877 – Sulu Archipelago (southwest Philippines)
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