Golden-breasted Fulvetta
Lioparus chrysotis
A stunning little bird, extremely brightly-colored for a fulvetta. Body is lit up by yellow undersides and sunny orange patches on the wings. Coal-black head with a white ear is reminiscent of Coal Tit, but rounder and crestless. Color scheme loosely resembles that of Silver-eared Mesia, which is much larger and has a more elongated body shape. Travels in large, noisy flocks through dense mid- to high-altitude forests.
Identification
The golden-breasted fulvetta is a small bird, measuring 10–11.5 cm (3.9–4.5 in) in length with a mass between 5 and 10 g (0.18 and 0.35 oz). The head and crown are black or grey and the black wings have orange-yellow slashes. The secondaries are tipped white and brown tail has two thirds of the base edged in orange yellow. The underparts are predominantly yellow and the throat may be grey or yellowish depending on the populations. The presence, prominence and colour of the median crown stripe varies with populations. The sexes are indistinguishable by plumage.
Taxonomy
When Edward Blyth first described the golden-breasted fulvetta in 1845, from a written description provided by naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson of a specimen collected in Nepal, he gave it the scientific name Proparus chrysotis. Most ornithologists kept it in that genus until 1889, when Eugene William Oates created the genus Lioparus and named the golden-breasted fulvetta as its type species and sole member. He moved the species out of the genus Proparus because it had a broader bill, much longer rictal bristles (bristles hanging over the nostrils) and smaller hind claws than other species in the genus. There are six recognized subspecies:
- Scientific name
- Lioparus chrysotis
- Authority
- (Blyth, 1845)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Paradoxornithidae
- Genus
- Lioparus
Range and habitat
The golden-breasted fulvetta is found from central Nepal through Bhutan, northern India and Myanmar to western China and northern Vietnam. It is an altitudinal migrant, moving from breeding grounds at 2,000–2,800 m (6,600–9,200 ft) to foothills as low as 1,600 m (5,200 ft), and occasionally down to 1,300 m (4,300 ft), in the winter.<p>Golden-breasted fulvettas are found in broad-leaved evergreen forests and montane bamboo where they forage at a low height for insects, moving in groups of as many as 30 individuals in winter, and often joining mixed-species foraging flocks.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the golden-breasted fulvetta as a species of least concern. Although its population has not been quantified and is thought to be declining, the decline is not thought to be precipitous, and its overall range is vast. In recent times, there has been growing pressure on some populations, with people collecting them as a food source or as pets.<p>Several species of feather mite have been described from specimens of the golden-breasted fulvetta including Timalinyssus grallator, Neocalcealges chrysotis, Anhemialge lioparus and Resartor extraneus from China.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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