Scarlet Minivet

The scarlet minivet is a small cuckooshrike, 20–22cm long, with a strong dark bill and long wings. The male has black upperparts and head and scarlet to orange underparts, tail edges, rump and wing patches; the shade and the shape of the wing patches vary between populations. The female is grey above and yellow below, including the face, with yellow tail edges, rump and wing patches. Several former subspecies, including the orange minivet, are now treated as separate species (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a common resident of forest and well-wooded country, including gardens, especially in hills. Small groups forage high in the canopy, often in mixed-species flocks, gleaning insects, catching them in flight and flushing them from foliage by beating their wings. Its song is a pleasant whistling. It nests high in the treetops, weaving a cup of small twigs bound with spider webs, and lays two or three pale green spotted eggs, incubated mainly by the female. SoIB 2023 lists it as a resident forest bird in India with a large range, finds its long-term trend stable, and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).