Black Bulbul

Black Bulbul

Hypsipetes leucocephalus

Silhouette: PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability ~10% · With luck
at Jinhua

In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%

8 Verified sightings at Jinhua
3,783 In all 12 parks From 2019 to 2026
August Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Black Bulbul

The black bulbul (Hypsipetes leucocephalus), also known as the Himalayan black bulbul or Asian black bulbul, is a member of the bulbul family of passerine birds. It is found primarily in the Himalayas, its range stretching from Pakistan eastward to Southeast Asia. It is the type species of the genus Hypsipetes, established by Nicholas Aylward Vigors in the early 1830s. There are a number of subspecies, mostly varying in the shade of the body plumage which ranges from grey to black, and some also occur in white-headed morphs, as also suggested by its specific epithet leucocephalus, literally "white head". The legs and bill are always rich orange-red.

The black bulbul 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 thrushes in the genus Turdus and coined the binomial name Turdus leucocephalus. Gmelin based his account on "Le Merle Dominiquain de la Chine", a white-headed morph from China that had been described in 1782 by the French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat. The type locality was subsequently restricted to Guangzhou (formerly Canton... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Call0:26

Taiwan · 2026

© Joan Theng · XC1156279 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Song0:18

China · 2026

© Albert Lastukhin · XC1138549 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Recording0:37

Taiwan · 2023

© 蔡明剛 · XC789821 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Royal Manas National Park 🇧🇹 Bhutan
~50%
2 Taroko National Park 🇹🇼 Taiwan
~30%
3 Doi Inthanon National Park 🇹🇭 Thailand
~20%
4 Namdapha National Park 🇮🇳 India
~20%
5 Jim Corbett National Park 🇮🇳 India
~20%
6 Langtang National Park 🇳🇵 Nepal
~20%
7 Manas National Park 🇮🇳 India
~20%
8 Royal Bardia National Park 🇳🇵 Nepal
<5%
9 Cuc Phuong National Park 🇻🇳 Vietnam
<5%
10 Cat Tien National Park 🇻🇳 Vietnam
<5%
11 Chitwan National Park 🇳🇵 Nepal
<5%
12 Kaziranga National Park 🇮🇳 India
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Taipei 🇹🇼 Taiwan
~60%
2 Taichung 🇹🇼 Taiwan
~50%
3 Fuzhou 🇨🇳 China
~30%
4 Kaohsiung 🇹🇼 Taiwan
~30%
5 Hangzhou 🇨🇳 China
~30%
6 Nanjing 🇨🇳 China
~20%
7 Xiamen City 🇨🇳 China
~20%
8 Hefei 🇨🇳 China
~20%
9 Srinagar 🇮🇳 India
~20%
10 Wenzhou 🇨🇳 China
~20%

Zoos & Centres Where Found

# Zoo / Centre Country
1 San Diego Zoo 🇺🇸 United States In captivity
2 ZooParc de Beauval 🇫🇷 France In captivity
3 Leipzig Zoological Garden 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
4 Zoo Miami 🇺🇸 United States In captivity
5 Zoologischer Garten Leipzig 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
6 Kunming Zoo 🇨🇳 China In captivity
7 San Antonio Zoo 🇺🇸 United States In captivity
8 Attica Zoological Park 🇬🇷 Greece In captivity
9 Green World Ecological Farm 🇹🇼 Taiwan In captivity
10 Peacock Garden 🇨🇳 China In captivity
11 Wolfgang-Köhler-Primaten-Forschungszentrum 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Black Bulbul in Jinhua?

With luck

About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black Bulbul sighting in Jinhua on a given day, based on 8 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 63rd most-seen of the 74 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Black Bulbul in Jinhua?

August

In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Black Bulbul in Jinhua on a given day, against about 10% in April–June and September–December, the lowest months. January–March and July have too few records to rate.

What time of day is best to see a Black Bulbul?

Between 3 and 6 pm

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black Bulbul sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Is Jinhua the best place to see a Black Bulbul?

13th of 23

Of the 23 cities where we can rate Black Bulbul sightings, Jinhua ranks 13th at about 10%. The best odds are in Taipei (Taiwan, about 60%), Taichung (Taiwan, about 50%) and Fuzhou (China, about 30%).

Where does the Black Bulbul sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Black Bulbul is recorded against all the birds logged in Jinhua (8 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.

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