Asian Paradise flycatcher

I have been fascinated by the Asian Paradise Flycatcher(APF) sheerly for the elegance and the rarity of it. But I have some confusion, I have encountered an APF at Sanjay Gandhi National park and had shared the image of it too in our forum(http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/sho...hp?16068-A-p-f) which was overall white in colour and black facial area. I was of the assumption that the male APF are white, with an elongated tail and the female are more brownish and shorter tail. But during my recent visit to Lokhandwala lake I came across an APF which was brownish in colour, had a fluorescent blue eyeliner kind of feature, and had an elongated brown tail. I am not sure if that was also a APF male or a female. Do APFs have two colours or are those different forms/ variety of APF? Being a novice in birding and more of an enthusiastic photographer I was keen to know the difference between the two APF's Unfortunately I coldnt get a shot of the brown APF as it was perched high in the trees and by the time I could capture it it flew off and disappeared into the woods.

The Asian Paradise Flycatcher Males occur in two phases (morphs) - one with a rufous (chestnut) upper plumage (rufous phase or morph) and another with a predominantly white plumage (white phase). Females resemble rufous-phase males, except they have shorter tails (without the streamers) and smaller crests. Their throat and underparts are greyish, and they lack the blue eye rings of the males.

Broadly the distribution of the Asian Paradise Flycatcher is as mentioned below -

- Predominantly rufous with some white in wings and tail — collected in Turkestan, Kashmir, northern India, Punjab, Maharashtra, Sikkim and in Sri Lanka;
- Predominantly rufous with some white in wings — collected in Iran, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Punjab, Kashmir, northern and central India, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Bihar, Nepal;
- Predominantly rufous with some white in tail — collected in Punjab, northern and central India, Kolkata, Sri Lanka and in the Upper Yangtse Valley in China;
- Predominantly white with some rufous in tail and wings — collected in Kashmir, Maharashtra, Sichuan and North China;
- Predominantly white with some rufous in tail — collected in Maharashtra and Fuzhou, China;
- Predominantly white with back partly rufous — collected in Punjab and Chennai;
- Predominantly white with wings and tail irregularly blotched and washed with rufous in places — in the extreme southeastern edge of the range of the species : Alor Island and Sumba;
- Moulting from rufous into white plumage — collected in North Bihar.

I hope this information will be helpful.

What you saw was a male of a rufous morph/form. APFs occur in not two distinct morphs (white & rufous) but in varieties of intermediate plumage as well. Some morphs appear to be more common in certain regions and rarer in others. Rufous ones have also moulted to white.
Read this for more info: http://beautyofbirds.com/asianparadi...ml#description

Thanks a lot for the details :) It was really very useful :o