The ashy minivet (''Pericrocotus divaricatus'') is a

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

of eastern

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

belonging to the

minivet The minivets are passerine birds belonging to the genus ''Pericrocotus'' in the cuckooshrike family Campephagidae. There are about 15 species, occurring mainly in forests in southern and eastern Asia. They are fairly small, slender birds with lon ...

genus ''Pericrocotus'' in the

cuckooshrike The cuckooshrikes and allies in the family Campephagidae are small to medium-sized passerine bird species found in the subtropical and tropical Africa, Asia and Australasia. The 93 species are divided into 11 genera. The woodshrikes (''Tephrodorn ...

family Campephagidae. While most of the minivets have shades of yellow, orange and red in their plumage, this species has only greys, whites and blacks. The male is distinctive with a white face and black nape although females can be confused with the female of the

brown-rumped minivet Swinhoe's minivet or the brown-rumped minivet (''Pericrocotus cantonensis'') is a bird in the cuckooshrike family, Campephagidae. The species was first described by Robert Swinhoe in 1861. It breeds in China and winters in Mainland Southeast As ...

. They forage in the canopy, often along with other minivets and join

mixed-species foraging flock A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while foraging. These ar ...

Description

It is 18.5–20 cm long. The male is grey above and whitish below. It has a black cap with a white forehead and there is a white band across the flight-feathers. The outer tail feathers are white. The bill and feet are black. The female's cap is grey apart from a black band between the bill and eye and a narrow white band above it. The call is a high-pitched, metallic trill. It is considered as closely related to ''

Pericrocotus roseus The rosy minivet (''Pericrocotus roseus'') is a species of bird in the family Campephagidae. The male is distinguished from other minivets by having a deep pink/light red shade in wings and tail and the female having an olive/olive yellow rump a ...

'' and '' Pericrocotus cantonensis'' but differs in moult pattern. It is one of the few passerine birds that moult their primaries twice in a year and is the longest distance migrant among the minivets. It breeds in south-east

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

, north-east

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Birds in the

Ryūkyū Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonaguni ...

of southern Japan are commonly considered to be a separate species—

Ryukyu minivet The Ryukyu minivet (''Pericrocotus tegimae'') is a species of bird in the family Campephagidae. It is Endemism, endemic to Japan. The species was previously thought to be a subspecies of the ashy minivet. Its specific name is named for the Japanes ...

(''P. tegimae''). The ashy minivet is a long distance migrant, wintering in

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

and

South-east Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

as far south as

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

and the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. It is found in

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

as well as in more open areas with scattered trees. It forages in the tree canopy for

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s sometimes joining

s. Migrant birds can often be seen in large flocks. The status of the species is considered to be secure and is considered as a "least concern" species by the IUCN. Populations of the species on the Amami Island was found to have increased from 1985–2001. In the South Asian region, they are considered rare. They were first noted on the Indian mainland only in 1965 although they had been reported in 1897 from the Andaman Islands. It has since been reported with greater regularity. Four to seven

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

are laid. These are incubated for 17 to 18 days.

Notes

References

*Brazil, Mark A. (1991) ''The Birds of Japan'', Christopher Helm, London. *MacKinnon, John & Phillipps, Karen (2000) ''A Field Guide to the Birds of China'', Oxford University Press, Oxford. *Robson, Craig (2002) ''A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia''. New Holland, London.

External links

Photographs and videos

Calls
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1590357

ashy minivet The ashy minivet (''Pericrocotus divaricatus'') is a passerine bird of eastern Asia belonging to the minivet genus ''Pericrocotus'' in the cuckooshrike family Campephagidae. While most of the minivets have shades of yellow, orange and red in thei ...

Birds of Manchuria Birds of Korea Birds of Japan Birds of the Ryukyu Islands