Gould's Shortwing

Gould's shortwing is a small passerine of the family Muscicapidae and the only species in the genus Heteroxenicus, formerly placed in Brachypteryx. It is 12–13 cm long and 19–23 g, chestnut above and dark grey below with small white spots or stars on the belly, long brown legs and a black bill; the sexes are similar. It is found in the Himalaya, mainly in Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Bhutan, and in Yunnan and northern parts of Myanmar and Vietnam. The common name commemorates the English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould (1804–1881) (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in the eastern Himalaya in rocky areas above the tree line and winters at lower altitude in wooded valleys. Nothing is known of its nest or eggs. SoIB 2023 treats it as an Eastern Himalayan endemic and rates it a Moderate conservation priority, a resident and altitudinal migrant forest bird and omnivore with a Restricted range of about 8,320 km² and insufficient data on trends (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).