Striated Bulbul and its calls

“I am partial to bulbuls and would have loved to have had more time with this delightful Striated Bulbul (Pycnonotus striatus striatus).

“Elegant in appearance and reminiscent of the mountain bulbuls of my region but ‘better dressed’.

“Also has interesting calls.

“Has a curious neck patter, like an unshaven human male. See image above which shows the stippled black on yellow of the lower throat.”


“I was able to record series of two types of calls.

“The first (sonogram above) is best described in Kazmierczak (A Field Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent) as “chee-tu”. Note the soft response from another bird nearby.

The second (sonogram above) is a more strident call, harder to describe. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive [Fishpool, L. & Tobias, J. (2016). Striated Bulbul] describes it as “schew-whit! tchi-whit!” or “cha whik! tu-tu”.

Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
17th September 2015

Location: Maenam Wildlife Sanctuary, Ravangla Subdivision, South Sikkim, India
Habitat: A road cutting through the Maenam Wildlife Sanctuary, primary forest, 2,200m ASL