Ashy Minivet

The ashy minivet is a minivet of eastern Asia, 18.5–20 cm long, and unlike most minivets, which show yellow, orange and red, it has only greys, whites and blacks. The male has a white face and black nape, is grey above and whitish below, with white outer tail feathers, while females can be confused with the female of the brown-rumped minivet. It breeds in south-east Siberia, north-east China, Korea and Japan (Wikipedia, general species account).

Four to seven eggs are laid and incubated for 17 to 18 days. It forages in the canopy, often with other minivets and in mixed-species flocks, and has a high-pitched metallic trill. It was first noted on the Indian mainland only in 1965, though it had been reported from the Andaman Islands in 1897. SoIB 2023 lists it as a winter migrant of forest and plantation that eats invertebrates, without a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).