Lalage sueurii
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The white-shouldered triller (Lalage sueurii) is a passerine bird belonging to the triller genus Lalage in the cuckoo-shrike family Campephagidae. It is found in Indonesia and East Timor. The white-winged triller (L. tricolor) of Australia and New Guinea was formerly included in this species but is now treated as a separate species.
It is a fairly small bird, 17 centimetres in length. The bill is grey with a black tip and the legs and feet are black. The male is mainly black above and white below. It has a grey rump, white stripe over the eye, white wing-patches and white on the outer tail-feathers. Females have a similar pattern to the males but are brown instead of black above and have fine black barring on the underparts.
The pied triller is similar but is slightly smaller with a broader stripe above the eye and more white in the wing. The male white-winged triller has no white stripe over the eye. The song of the white-shouldered triller is a metallic whistling which is sometimes given in flight. It also utters a rapid series of harsh notes.
It occurs in eastern Java, southern Sulawesi, Bali and on the Lesser Sunda Islands. It inhabits open woodland, savannas and agricultural land in dry, lowland areas. It feeds on insects, often swooping down from a perch to catch them on the ground. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bali Barat National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 2 | Komodo National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 3 | Tangkoko Nature Reserve | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a White-shouldered Triller sighting in Surabaya on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 23rd most-seen of the 27 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a White-shouldered Triller in Surabaya on a given day, against under 5% in July–September and November–March, the lowest months. That is one of Surabaya's driest months, with about 60 mm of rain against 330 mm in January. April and June have too few records to rate.
Between 1 and 4 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-shouldered Triller sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
3rd of 3
Of the 3 cities where we can rate White-shouldered Triller sightings, Surabaya ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Makassar (Indonesia, about 30%) and Denpasar (Indonesia, about 20%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the White-shouldered Triller that you can see in Surabaya (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Nutmeg Mannikin (about 20%), Eurasian Tree Sparrow (about 20%) and White-headed Munia (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-shouldered Triller is recorded against all the birds logged in Surabaya (6 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.
