Description
It is the same size as other Dendrocitta species and is separated from them by the overall grey colour of the body. The races in the western part of the distribution have a greyish rump and some grey in tail while the eastern forms have a white rump and a black tail. The face and throat are dark and black with a diffuse mask. The body is grey on the underside becoming whiter towards the vent. The back and scapulars are brownish. The crown and nape are greyish and the black wing has a prominent white carpal patch. The vent is rufous and the outer tail feathers and tips of the central feathers are black.
The species occupies a large geographical range and has several recognised regional forms that differ slightly from one another for instance in colour and tail length. These include occidentalis of the western Himalayan foothills (identified by its slightly longer tail), himalayana from the central Himalayas east into Thailand and Vietnam. A disjunct population, said to have a smaller or narrower bill, is found in the Eastern Ghats of peninsular India, sarkari, that is sometimes subsumed into himalayana. The Southeast Asian races include assimilis, sapiens, sinica, formosae (the nominate race from Taiwan) and insulae (Hainan Island).
It has been suggested that this species forms a superspecies along with Dendrocitta occipitalis and Dendrocitta cinerascens.
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