Short-billed Minivet

The short-billed minivet is an arboreal, long-winged songbird with strongly different male and female plumages. Males are predominantly glossy black and scarlet, with red areas on the underparts, rump and wings; females replace the scarlet with yellow and the black with greyer tones. Both sexes have a relatively short bill and a long tail. Flocks are conspicuous as they move between treetops, the bright colours flashing against foliage (Ali 1949; Birds of India species account).

Its range stretches from the Himalayas and northeastern India through Myanmar and southern China to northern Indochina. It favours open forest and well-wooded country and may form parties of twenty or more outside the breeding season. Birds glean insects and larvae from foliage and also eat buds, often joining mixed-species flocks. Both adults build a small moss-and-lichen cup on a horizontal outer branch, and species accounts report a typical clutch of three eggs (Ali 1949; Bird World species account).