Bulbuls | Pycnonotidae

Buulbuuls | Bulbules

The family does not belong here by nature: birds from the cage-bird trade have been released or have escaped and have settled in gardens, parks and orchards on the islands in the Pacific and locally on the mainland in the south. They are medium-sized birds with loose, soft plumage, a short neck and a slender, slightly decurved bill with stiff bristles at its base; hair-like feathers stand on the nape, and many species carry a crest. They live in noisy parties, call all day in clear chattering phrases and are conspicuously present in settled country. The food consists largely of fruit and flower buds, supplemented with nectar and with insects seized in a short sally from a perch; fruit is swallowed whole, so the seeds pass through undamaged and end up elsewhere. The nest is an open cup in a shrub or low tree.