The rufous-bellied niltava (''Niltava sundara'') 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

Muscicapidae The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, Bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica)'' and Northe ...

. It is found in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

, China,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, Laos,

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. 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 ...

s are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist

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 ...

. Rufous-bellied niltava measures 15–18 cm and weighs 19–24 g.Clement, P. (2020). Rufous-bellied Niltava (''Niltava sundara''), version 1.0. In ''Birds of the World'' (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.rubnil1.01 It is a large, stocky and brightly coloured flycatcher with rounded head shape, fairly short tail and broad-based bill.

Taxonomy and systematics

The rufous-breasted niltava is one of six species in the genus

Niltava ''Niltava'' (from ''niltau'', Nepali for ''N. sundara'') is a genus of passerine birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. The genus contains the following seven species: * Fujian niltava (''Niltava davidi'') * Rufous-bellied ni ...

, found in South and

Southeast 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 mainlan ...

along with China. This bird has sometimes been considered to be conspecific with the Fujian niltava and rufous-vented niltava. It was described by

Brian Hodgson Brian Hodgson (born 1938) is a British television composer and sound technician. Born in Liverpool in 1938, Hodgson joined the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1962 where he became the original sound effects creator for the science fiction program ...

in 1837. The specific epithet ''sundara'' is a Latinised version of the

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

word ''sundar'', meaning "beautiful". The bird has also been called the blue-and-orange niltava or black-and-orange niltava, as the male's blue upperparts may look black in poor light. Other names for the bird include orange-bellied niltava, beautiful niltava, or the sundara niltava.

Subspecies

''N. s. sundara'' - (

Hodgson Hodgson is a surname. In United Kingdom, Britain, the Hodgson surname was the 173rd most common (766 per million) in 1881 and the 206th most common (650 per million) in 1998. In the United States, United States of America, Hodgson was the 3753rd mo ...

, 1837): The nominate subspecies, it is found in the central and eastern Himalayas east from Nepal and from South China to Myanmar. Non-breeding individuals are also found northeastern Bangladesh. ''N. s. whistleri'' - (

Ticehurst Ticehurst is both a village and a large civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. The parish lies in the upper reaches of both the Bewl stream before it enters Bewl Water and in the upper reaches of the River Rother flowi ...

, 1926): Found in the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...

in north

and

, extending eastward up until

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

. The subspecific epithet is in honour of

Hugh Whistler Hugh Whistler (28 September 1889 – 7 July 1943), F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. was an English police officer and ornithologist who worked in India. He wrote one of the first field guides to Indian birds and documented the distributions of birds in notes in ...

. Males have paler underparts than that of the nominate, and females have a paler tail, upperparts, and more greyish-olive on their underparts. ''N. s. denotata'' - (Bangs & Phillips, 1914): Found in eastern

, southern China, and northwestern Vietnam. Non-breeding individuals can be found further south to northern

and

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

. Males more violet-blue in colour than that of the nominate, with females having more olive-brown on the crown and nape, buff on forehead, rufous-brown on mantle and rufous on uppertail-coverts and tail edges.

Ecology and behaviour

Diet

The rufous-breasted niltava is predominantly insectivorous. Its diet mainly consists of small invertebrates and larvae (especially

ants Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Creta ...

and beetles), along with occasional consumption of fruit. Feeds by perching quietly in the undergrowth and darting out or dropping to the ground to catch prey. Rufous-breasted niltavas tend to feed either solitarily or in pairs, sometimes joining mixed-species flocks. It tends to be more solitary in winter.

Gallery

Rufous-bellied niltava in Nepal.jpg, male ''N.s. sundara'',

Rufous-bellied niltava (Niltava sundara sundara) female Phulchowki.jpg, female ''N.s. sundara'',

References

rufous-bellied niltava Birds of Central China Birds of the Himalayas Birds of Myanmar Birds of Tibet Birds of Yunnan rufous-bellied niltava Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Birds of Nepal {{Muscicapidae-stub