A long-tailed forest thrush of southern Asia, typically having blackish plumage with a reddish-brown belly.
鹊鸲
Genus Copsychus, family Turdidae: five species
Example sentencesExamples
Arguably the best songbird, the shama is a forest dweller and difficult to spot.
Chinese thrushes compete with other birds with extraordinary names: white-rumped shamas, red-whiskered bulbuls.
Flocks of wintering water birds include the thrush, the kingfisher, the robin, the shama, the barbet, the bee-eater, the flycatcher, the sunbird, the bulbul and the drongo.
Regulars in the yard were many, but the stand-outs were a white-crowned shama and a lesser cuckoo-shrike.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from Hindi śyāma, from Sanskrit.