Indian Blackbird

Dark thrush with a bright orange bill. Male is slightly darker than the female. Plumage varies slightly throughout range, Sri Lanka birds being midnight-black and central Indian “Black-capped” birds being brown with a black head and wings. Note the small teardrop-shaped patch of bare orange skin around the eye. Beautiful fluting song often heard from foothill forests, forest edge, and orchards; winters at lower altitudes, often in closer proximity to people, though typically not in outright urban areas like Chinese and Eurasian Blackbirds.

Breeds in moist deciduous and evergreen broadleaf forest, sholas, wooded ravines, dense scrub-jungle, scrubby woodland edge, groves, copses, shade coffee plantations, in hills above 700 m in India, above 900 m in Sri Lanka; winters down to plains, in similar habitat and also wooded gardens and plantations.

It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, earthworms, berries, and fruits.