Thick-Billed Flowerpecker

The thick-billed flowerpecker is a tiny bird about 10 centimetres long, with a conspicuously stout dark bill and short tail. It is dark grey-brown above and dull greyish below, with diffuse streaking on the pale buff underparts; the sexes are similar and juveniles are generally duller. The unusually robust bill is the most useful distinction from comparable small flowerpeckers (Wikipedia; BirdLookUp general species account).

This resident species ranges widely across tropical southern Asia from India east through Southeast Asia to Indonesia and Timor. It occupies primary and secondary forest and follows fruiting trees, usually feeding actively in the canopy. Fruit and berries dominate the diet, with insects and larvae taken as supplements. Birds may forage alone, in pairs or occasionally with mixed-species flocks, making local movements as fruit availability changes rather than undertaking long migrations (Wikipedia; BirdLookUp general species account).