Tephrodornis pondicerianus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The common woodshrike (Tephrodornis pondicerianus) is a species of bird found in Asia. It is now usually considered a member of the family Vangidae. It is small and ashy brown with a dark cheek patch and a broad white brow. It is found across Asia mainly in thin forest and scrub habitats where they hunt insects, often joining other insectivorous birds. The form found in Sri Lanka which was treated as a subspecies is now usually considered a separate species, the Sri Lanka woodshrike.
The common woodshrike 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 flycatchers in the genus Muscicapa and coined the binomial name Muscicapa pondiceriana. Gmelin based his description on the "Le gobe-mouches de Pondichéry" that had been described in 1782 by the French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat. The type locality was restricted from Pondicherry to Chennai by Claud Ticehurst in 1921. The common woodshrike is now one of four species placed in the genus Tephrodornis that was introduced in 1832 by the English naturalist William Swainson. The genus name combines the... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gir National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Bandhavgarh National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Ranthambore National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Satpura National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Royal Bardia National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 6 | Keoladeo National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Manas National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 10 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 11 | Mudumalai National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 12 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 13 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 14 | Kaziranga National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 15 | Periyar National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 16 | Royal Manas National Park | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | |
| 17 | Sundarbans National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 18 | Doi Inthanon National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Common Woodshrike sighting in Royal Manas National Park on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 339th most-seen of the 388 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Woodshrike in Royal Manas National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March–July and October–January, the lowest months. That is one of Royal Manas National Park's driest months, with about 65 mm of rain against 930 mm in July. August and September have too few records to rate.
Between 3 and 6 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Woodshrike sightings with a recorded time, and about half of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
16th of 18
Of the 18 parks where we can rate Common Woodshrike sightings, Royal Manas National Park ranks 16th at under 5%. The best odds are in Gir National Park (India, about 30%), Bandhavgarh National Park (India, about 30%) and Ranthambore National Park (India, about 30%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Woodshrike is recorded against all the birds logged in Royal Manas National Park (9 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
