Golden-breasted Fulvetta

The golden-breasted fulvetta is a small songbird 10–11.5 cm long and 5–10 g, found from central Nepal through Bhutan, northern India and Myanmar to western China and northern Vietnam. The head and crown are black or grey and the black wings have orange-yellow slashes, the secondaries tipped white and the brown tail edged orange-yellow for two thirds of its base. The underparts are predominantly yellow, the throat grey or yellowish depending on the population, and the sexes are indistinguishable by plumage (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is an altitudinal migrant, moving from breeding grounds at 2,000–2,800 m to foothills as low as 1,600 m, occasionally down to 1,300 m, in winter. It is found in broadleaved evergreen forest and montane bamboo, foraging at low height for insects, in groups of as many as 30 in winter, often joining mixed-species foraging flocks. SoIB 2023 rates it a Moderate conservation priority, a resident and altitudinal migrant forest bird and omnivore with a Restricted range of about 16,800 km² and insufficient data on trends (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).