Swinhoe's Minivet

Swinhoe's minivet is a pale grey minivet 18–19 cm long. Males have a white forehead extending behind the eye, black lores, a broad dark eye-stripe, grey crown and mantle, brownish rump and whitish underparts washed buff. Females are paler and browner, with a less distinct eyebrow and facial pattern. Both sexes have pale shafts in the tail feathers. The brown-toned upperparts and pale rump distinguish it from the more contrasting ashy minivet (Hong Kong Bird Watching Society species account).

It breeds across much of central and southern China and winters in mainland Southeast Asia, including Vietnam. The species uses deciduous and pine woodland, forest edge and other wooded habitats, mainly below about 1,500 m. Birds forage for invertebrates in the canopy, sometimes gathering into flocks or joining other insect-eating species. In Vietnam it is therefore principally a seasonal visitor rather than a resident breeder, moving south after the Chinese breeding season (Shanghai Birding species account; Oiseaux.net species data; Wikipedia, general species account).