Plain Flowerpecker
Dicaeum minullum
Aptly named small songbird of lowlands, brownish-olive above, with pale, olive-washed underparts. Pale, unmarked face and large dark eye gives it a “cute” appearance. Lack of distinctive marks is itself distinctive; other flowerpeckers in range are streaked or have patches of bright color. Usually seen hovering around or probing into flowers; especially fond of mistletoe fruits and blossoms. Song is as plain as its appearance; a mid-length, descending series of high-pitched ticks. Also gives lower-pitched, more evenly-spaced ticks.
Identification
These birds are tiny (9 cm long) and there is no marked difference between the males and females. The subspecies found in northeastern India, extending into Myanmar, Laos and southern China is called olivaceum by earlier authors but is treated by Pamela C. Rasmussen as a separate species Dicaeum minullum (which includes the population minullum from Hainan Island and is now termed as the plain flowerpecker in the more restricted sense).
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Dicaeum minullum
- Authority
- Swinhoe, 1870
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Dicaeidae
- Genus
- Dicaeum
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. Like many flowerpeckers, it favours mistletoe for foraging.
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Northern Wattled-Honeyeater
Foulehaio taviunensis
A medium-sized grayish honeyeater with an olive cast to the wings and a bright yellow-orange wattle on the cheek below the eye. Found mainly in mature forest. Absent from coconut plantations and secondary growth. Gives loud, chiming, melodious whistles and bell-like sounds.
Gray's Lark
Ammomanopsis grayi
A stocky, pale, plain buffy-white lark that frequently matches the color of the stony terrain it lives in. Its dark-tipped pale gray-blue bill and white-fringed dark tail distinguish it. Pairs and flocks of up to 30 are resident and nomadic in barren gravel plains with sparse cover of grass and shrubs. Mostly at night, it sings a soft tinkling “tink tink” with upslurred “swee” whistles interspersed. Gray’s Lark is most similar to Tractrac Chat, but the latter flicks its wings and has a pale rump; Stark’s Lark has a crest and streaked upperparts, and female sparrow-larks have dark belly patches.
Bare-throated Bellbird
Procnias nudicollis
Males are unmistakable snow-white cotingas with a greeny-blue bare face and throat. Females are olive-green above with a streaked belly and gray-brown head. The song is a metallic, explosive and massively loud “boink” delivered from high perches in the canopy of humid forests.
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