Short-billed Minivet

Short-billed Minivet Pericrocotus brevirostris was recorded on four occasions today in Doi Inthanon National Park, the only sightings of the tour. It is a species of bird in the family Campephagidae which is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. The photo is of a bird in the subspecies P. b. neglectus which is found in south-east Myanmar and north-west Thailand.

Separation of Short-billed Minivet from Scarlet Minivet Pericrocotus speciosus and Long-tailed Minivet Pericrocotus ethologus can be difficult both in the field and from photographs. All three of these species were recorded today. Field guides tend to mention the patterns of red (males) and yellow (females) on the tips of the tertials and inner secondaries, features which are not always visible. I decided to investigate the ratio of the length of the tail to the overall length of the bird in field guides and then compare the results with photographs. The estimates were as follows:

Scarlet Minivet 0.36
Long-tailed Minivet 0.42
Short-billed Minivet 0.42

This would help to separate Scarlet Minivet from the other two but not Short-billed from Long-tailed Minivets. I had hoped that either this photo or the next might be a Long-tailed Minivet but I have had to look again at the pattern on the inner secondaries and in both photos, my conclusion is that these are Short-billed Minivets.

References: Wikipedia