Scarlett Minivet – female, Bhutan

The scarlet minivet is a small passerine bird. This minivet is found in tropical southern Asia from India to southern China, Indonesia, and the Philippines. They are common resident breeding birds in forests and other well-wooded habitats including gardens, especially in hilly country. While the male of most subspecies are scarlet to orange with black upper parts, the females are usually yellow with greyish olive upper parts. This minivet catches insects in trees by flycatching or while perched. It flushes insects out of foliage by beating its wings hard. Scarlet minivet will form small flocks. Its song is a pleasant whistling. This bird nests high up in the treetops. The nest is a cup-like structure woven with small twigs and spiders’ webs to increase the strength of the nest. The species is generally quite noisy. It is classified as least concern by IUCN.

Rusty Cheeked Scimitar Babbler, Bhutan

The rusty-cheeked scimitar babbler is a species of bird in the Timaliidae family native to South-East Asia. The species is olive-brown above with rusty coluring on the sides of the face, head, thighs, and flanks. The belly is mostly white. Sexes are alike. The beak is long and decurved in a scimitar shape. The bird feeds mostly on the forest floor and in low canopy, forming small groups. Food items include insects, grubs and seeds. Calls consist of a mellow, fluty whistle, a two-noted “CUE..PE…CUE..pe” call followed by single note replay by mate, guttural alarm calls and a liquid contact note. The species is generally quite noisy. It is classified as least concern by IUCN.

Rufous fronted tit, Bhutan

The rufous-fronted bushtit or rufous-fronted tit is a small passerine bird of the eastern and central Himalayas belonging to the long-tailed tit family. The rufous-fronted bushtit is 11 cm long. The adult has grey upperparts and reddish-brown underparts. The head is reddish-buff with a black mask and a silver bib with black streaks and a black edge. Juveniles are paler and duller than the adults. The rufous-fronted bushtit is found in the eastern and central Himalayas in Bhutan, China, India and Nepal. It occurs in montane forests, both broad-leaved and coniferous, up to 3,600 m above sea-level. It typically feeds in flocks. It is classified as least concern by IUCN.

Rufous-bellied woodpecker – Female, Bhutan

The rufous-bellied woodpecker or rufous-bellied sapsuckerĀ  is a species of bird in the family Picidae. This woodpecker has a habit of making a series of small pits on the bark of trees leading to its being considered an Asiatic member of the sapsuckers in the past. It is found along the Himalayas in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, ranging across Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, North Korea, South Korea, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. The male has a red crown while the female has a black crown, speckled with white. Both sexes have a black mantle and back, while the wings are black barred with white. The upper tail is black, with some white barring on the outer two pairs of feathers. The face is white and the throat and underparts are a uniform cinnamon or rufous. The lower belly is black barred with white and the under-tail converts are red or pink. The iris is chestnut, the upper mandible of the beak is black and the lower mandible grey, and the legs are grey or olive. It is classified as […]

Kalij Pheasant – Male, Bhutan

The kalij pheasant is a pheasant found in forests and thickets, especially in the Himalayan foothills, from Pakistan to western Thailand. Males are rather variable depending on the subspecies involved, but all have an at least partially glossy bluish-black plumage, while females are overall brownish. Both sexes have a bare red face and greyish legs (the latter separating it from the red-legged silver pheasant). It is classified as least concern by IUCN.