The grey-chinned minivet (''Pericrocotus solaris'') is a species of

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 lightweig ...

in the family Campephagidae. It is found from the Himalayas to China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

is forests about in elevation. The

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...

(IUCN) has assessed it as a least-concern species.

Taxonomy

This species was described from

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal ...

by Edward Blyth in 1846. The

IOC World Bird List ''Birds of the World: Recommended English Names'' is a paperback book, written by Frank Gill and Minturn Wright on behalf of the International Ornithologists' Union. The book is an attempt to produce a standardized set of English names for all b ...

recognises eight subspecies: ''Pericrocotus solaris solaris'' found in the Himalayas and northern and western Myanmar; ''P. s. rubrolimbatus'' in eastern Myanmar and northern Thailand; ''P. s. montpellieri'' in southern China; ''P. s. griseogularis'' in southeastern China, Taiwan, northeastern Laos and northern Vietnam; ''P. s. deignani'' in southern Laos and central Vietnam; ''P. s. nassovicus'' in eastern Thailand and southern Cambodia; ''P. s. montanus'' in western Malaysia and Sumatra; and ''P. s. cinereigula'' in Borneo. The '' Handbook of the Birds of the World'' considers that ''montanus'' and ''cinereigula'' form a separate species.

Description

The grey-chinned minivet is long and weighs . It is

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

. The adult male has a dark grey head and mantle, a pale grey chin, an orange-yellow throat and blackish wings. The underparts, lower back and tips of the greater coverts are orange. In the female, these parts are bright yellow instead. The eyes, beak and legs are black. The immature bird is similar to the female but has yellow-olive bars on its back.

Distribution and habitat

This species ranges from the eastern foothills of the Himalayas through northeastern India, southern China, mainland Southeast Asia to Sumatra and Borneo. Its habitat is

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...

about in elevation. In Taiwan, it has been recorded down to . It lives in the canopy of

broadleaf 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' ...

and also

coniferous forest Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All exta ...

elfin forest Dwarf forest, elfin forest, or pygmy forest is an uncommon ecosystem featuring miniature trees, inhabited by small species of fauna such as rodents and lizards. They are usually located at high elevations, under conditions of sufficient air hu ...

, secondary forest, forest edges and gardens with trees. It is thought that all 12 of 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 ...

species adaptively radiated in mainland Asia and later dispersed to the Indonesian archipelago.

Behaviour

When not breeding, this minivet forms small parties with fewer than 15 individuals and also large flocks of dozens of birds; it sometimes joins

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 ...

s. It forages for invertebrates in the canopy, sometimes descending to

tree fern The tree ferns are arborescent (tree-like) ferns that grow with a trunk elevating the fronds above ground level, making them trees. Many extant tree ferns are members of the order Cyatheales, to which belong the families Cyatheaceae (scaly tree ...

s or sallying in the air. It gives a twittering call while feeding, and

contact call Contact calls are seemingly haphazard sounds made by many social animals (such as a chicken's cluck). Contact calls are unlike other calls (such as alarm calls) in that they are not usually widely used, conspicuous calls, but rather short exclamatio ...

s include a high-pitched ' and a '. Breeding has been recorded from February to April and has been inferred to occur in January. The male has been observed walking towards the female while holding a flower in its beak; the male swung its head, touched the female's beak and dropped the flower, and then they mated. The nest, constructed by both sexes, is built on a branch or fork of a tree. It is a steep cup made of

bryophyte The Bryophyta s.l. are a proposed taxonomic division containing three groups of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. Bryophyta s.s. consists of the mosses only. They are characteristically limited in s ...

s and covered with felt externally. Lichens are added to camouflage the nest, and the female shapes the nest by pushing against the rim with its breast. The eggs have not been described. The male and female raise the brood together, and subadults have been seen helping them. Moulting occurs from June to October.

Status

This species has a large range and stable population, so the IUCN has assessed it as a

least-concern species A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q1590404 grey-chinned minivet grey-chinned minivet Birds of Bhutan Birds of Nepal Birds of Northeast India Birds of South China Birds of Southeast Asia Birds of Taiwan grey-chinned minivet Taxonomy articles created by Polbot