• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note
Myiomela albiventris and M. major have been moved to the new genus Sholicola after they were found to be sister to a newly uncovered clade composed of several genera of mainly Asian blue-flycatchers (Robin et al. 2017). They have also received new common names, and are listed as White-bellied Sholakili Sholicola albiventris and Nilgiri Sholakili S. major.

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A., Fishpool, L.D.C., Boesman, P. and Kirwan, G.M. 2016. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International. 2019. Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 4. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v4_Dec19.zip.
Robin, V. V., Vishnudas, C. K., Gupta, P., Rheindt, F. E., Hooper, D. M., Ramakrishnan, U., & Reddy, S. 2017. Two new genera of songbirds represent endemic radiations from the Shola Sky Islands of the Western Ghats, India. BMC evolutionary biology, 17(1): 31.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2024	Near Threatened	B2ab(iii)
2016	Endangered	B1ab(i,ii,iii,v)
2012	Endangered	B1ab(i,ii,iii,v)
2010	Endangered	B1a+b(i,ii,iii,v)
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	altitudinal migrant	Forest dependency	high
Land-mass type	continent	Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Area of Occupancy (breeding/resident)	1,600 km2
Number of locations	11-100	-
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	-	-	-
Population trend	decreasing	poor	suspected	-
Generation length	3.14 years	-	-	-
Number of subpopulations	8	-	-	-
Percentage of mature individuals in largest subpopulation	1-89%	-	-	-

Population justification: The global population size of this species has not been quantified, although it has a localised and scattered distribution in the Western Ghats (eBird 2023, SoIB 2023), and may therefore have a population size that is moderately small.

Trend justification: Presumably much declined from historical baselines given the significant removal of habitat from within its range (see Reddy et al. [2016] for summary of forest cover changes in the Western Ghats between 1920 and 2013). There are no monitoring data from which to derive a current trend for this species, although it is precautionarily suspected to be declining, albeit at a slow rate. Habitat loss and degradation has been slow over the past decade (2013–2023) according to remote sensing data (Global Forest Watch 2023, based on data from Hansen et al. [2013] and methods disclosed therein), although these analyses are relatively insensitive to forest degradation or modifications that don't affect the forest canopy. Modelling for this species' only congener, Sholicola albiventris, projected that the latter would lose a significant amount (26.6–44.9%) of habitat in response to climate change by 2050 (Sreekumar and Nameer 2022). While this modelling approach has not been applied to the present species, given the similarity of the two and their ecological niches, it might reasonably be expected that climate change is affecting this species now, or will do so in the near future.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
India	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name
India	Avalanche (Nilgiri)
India	Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary (including Molem)
India	Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary and Hills
India	Bison Swamp (Nilgiri)
India	Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary
India	Cairn Hill Reserve Forest (Nilgiri)
India	Camel’s Hump Mountains
India	Governor's Shola (Nilgiri)
India	Kemmangundi and Bababudan Hills
India	Kudremukh National Park
India	Longwood Shola - Kothagiri
India	Mukurthi National Park (Nilgiris)
India	Muthikulam-Siruvani Reserve Forest
India	Naduvattam
India	Silent Valley National Park
India	Talakaveri Wildlife Sanctuary
India	Thaishola

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Montane	major	resident
Altitude	1000 - 1500 m	Occasional altitudinal limits	900 - 2100 m

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Agriculture & aquaculture	Annual & perennial non-timber crops - Agro-industry farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem conversion
Agriculture & aquaculture	Annual & perennial non-timber crops - Small-holder farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem conversion
Agriculture & aquaculture	Livestock farming & ranching - Small-holder grazing, ranching or farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 4
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Biological resource use	Gathering terrestrial plants - Unintentional effects (species is not the target)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Indirect ecosystem effects, Ecosystem degradation
Biological resource use	Logging & wood harvesting - Unintentional effects: (subsistence/small scale) [harvest]	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Climate change & severe weather	Habitat shifting & alteration	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Unknown		Whole (>90%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Indirect ecosystem effects, Ecosystem degradation

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Nilgiri Sholakili Sholicola major. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/nilgiri-sholakili-sholicola-major on 22/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 22/11/2024.