12 Most Beautiful Species of Bulbul Found in India

The bulbul family of passerine songbirds are distributed across the Africa to India and found in a wide range of habitats, including rainforest, mangroves, Himalayas and urban gardens.

India is home to around 17 species of bulbul, few listed below and more species of bulbul found in India are Ashy Bulbul, Black-headed bulbul,Andaman Bulbul, Nicobar bulbul and Finch-billed bulbul.

Black Bulbul

Black Bulbul found mainly in hilly areas of the Himalayas, often seen in small groups and the body plumage ranges from slate grey to shimmering black. Assam black bulbul is known to be a subspecies of Himalayan black bulbul with varying in the shade of the body plumage.

Himalayan Bulbul

Himalayan bulbul or White Cheeked Bulbul is a beautiful species of songbirds found in India, Mostly found near the Himalayas and northern regions of the Indian subcontinent.The species also occurs in some adjoining areas of central Asia.

Red-vented Bulbul

Red vented bulbul is the most common species of bulbul found in India, Listed as one of the worst invasive bird species in the world along with Common Myna.

The red-vented bulbul rarely found in mature forest and a resident breeder across the urban cities.

Red-whiskered Bulbul

Red whiskered bulbul found mainly in Asia and are very common in small hills and urban gardens around the cities along with Red-vented bulbul. The red-whiskered bulbul has brown upper-parts,a long and brown tail and melodious calls.

Black-crested Bulbul

Black-crested bulbul species is found from the Indian subcontinent to rest of Asia and is a bird of forest and dense scrub. The beautiful shades of yellow body bird feeds on fruit and insects.

White-eared Bulbul

White-eared bulbul also known as white-cheeked bulbul is very much similar to the Himalayan species of bulbul but found in gardenland, mangroves and scrub forest in pairs or small groups.

White-browed bulbul is a resident breeder of India found in dense habitats of central and southern India as well as in found in Sri Lanka. The white-browed bulbul is endemic to southern India and in the similar by looking yellow-throated bulbul.

Yellow-browed Bulbul

Yellow-browed bulbul or golden-browed bulbul is small species of bird found in the forests of southern India. The bulbul bulbul is currently the sole species and are found in pairs or small groups in the tea plantations in the Western Ghats.

Yellow-throated Bulbul

Yellow-throated bulbul is also endemic to southern India and calls is similar to the white-browed bulbul. The habitat of this bulbul species is hill forests, rocky parts of the Eastern Ghats, Western Ghats and Nallamala range of South.

Ashy Bulbul

Ashy bulbul is a species of songbird from the bulbul family, found in the Indian subcontinent. Its natural habitats are like Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh.

Grey-headed Bulbul

Grey-headed bulbul is endemic to the Western Ghats of India, mainly found near rivers and swampy areas. They have a sharp and distinctive call with olive-green plumage and a resident of bamboo and dense forest.

Flame-throated Bulbul

Flame-throated bulbul usually seen in groups and found only in the forests of the Western Ghats. They are also olive backed plumage bird and produced sound similar to red-whiskered bulbul, feeds on berries. Image source – wikipedia

Square-tailed Bulbul

Square-tailed bulbul is another species of songbird found in South India, The dark plumage bulbul with a red bill looks like Black Bulbul in appearance and also found in North east India as well as around the great Himalayas.