Fire-breasted Flowerpecker

Fire-breasted Flowerpecker Dicaeum ignipectus was recorded on fifteen separate occasions on the tour and seen both in Khao Yai and Doi Inthanon National Parks. I was lying underneath a tree photographing several species of flycatcher, sunbird and tit and came across this photo of a flowerpecker several weeks later. Fire-breasted was the only flowerpecker species recorded on that date and the bird in the photo does seem to fit the description of a female or perhaps a juvenile Fire-breasted.

The female has a dark bill, greenish-olive upperparts and head sides, uniform buffish below with olive tinged flanks. The juvenile has a paler based lower mandible, no buff below, appears greyish across the breast with a yellow belly centre. It is very similar to Plain Flowerpecker although different altitudinal range and habitat should aid identification. Its habitat is broad-leaved forest, secondary growth and orchards.

Fire-breasted Flowerpecker is a species of bird in the Dicaeidae family found in South and Southeast Asia. Like other flowerpeckers, this tiny bird feeds on fruits and plays an important role in the dispersal of fruiting plants. Unlike many other species in the genus, this species has marked sexual dimorphism with the male having contrasting upper and lower parts with a distinctive bright orange breast patch. The female is dull coloured.

It is found widely distributed along the sub-Himalayan region in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and extends into South-east Asia into China, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and the Philippines. Its natural habitats are temperate forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Reference: Wikipedia; Grimmett, R., Inskipp, C. and Inskipp, T. (1998) Birds of the Indian Subcontinent, page 800, Christopher Helm (Publishers) Ltd.; Robson, C. (2010) Birds of South-East Asia, page 274, New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd.