| Scarlet Minivet | |
|---|---|
| Female in Sri Lanka | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Campephagidae |
| Genus: | Pericrocotus |
| Species: | P. flammeus |
| Binomial name | |
| Pericrocotus flammeus Forster, 1781 |
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The Scarlet Minivet, Pericrocotus flammeus is a small passerine bird. This minivet is found in tropical southern Asia from the Indian subcontinent east 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. Several former subspecies have been elevated to species status in recent works. These include the Orange Minivet (flammeus in the narrow sense) while the Scarlet Minivet in the restricted sense is used for Pericrocotus speciosus. All subspecies have the same habits of gleaning for insects and are often seen in mixed-species foraging flocks, usually foraging in small groups, high up in the forest canopy.
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The Scarlet Minivet is 20–22 cm (7.9–8.7 in) long with a strong dark beak and long wings. The male has black upperparts and head, and scarlet underparts, tail edges, rump and wing patches. The shape and colour of the wing patches and the shade or orange in the male varies across populations. In the subspecies nigroluteus and marchesae from south Philippines the scarlet/orange is entirely replaced by yellow. The female is grey above, with yellow underparts (including the face), tail edges, rump and wing patches.
There is considerable geographic variation in this species and several disjunct populations exist. Some former races are sometimes considered full species requiring the reorganization of other former subspecies. As many as nineteen subspecies have been described. Race speciosus (Latham, 1790) found along the Himalayas from Kashmir east to southern China has been elevated to a full species in some works.[2] If this is considered a species, then the races fraterculus, andamanensis and semiruber would be considered as subspecies of that species. The named subspecies within this complex include:[3]
Several isolated island forms that have been described include:
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. Two or three spotted pale green eggs are laid. Incubation is mainly by the female, but both birds help to raise the offspring.