Pericrocotus flammeus (J.R. Forster, 1781)

Scarlet to orange male birds with black upper parts, females are yellow with greyish olive upper parts.

A slender long-tailed bird with bright red underparts and black upperparts, and a red wing patch (male). The female is lemon yellow below and grey above.

P. f. peciosus (Latham, 1790) P. f. fraterculus Swinhoe, 1870 P. f. semiruber Whistler & Kinnear, 1933 P. f. andamanensis Beavan, 1867 P. f. flammeus (J. R. Forster, 1781) P. f. fohkiensis Buturlin, 1910 P. f. flammifer Hume, 1875 P. f. xanthogaster (Raffles, 1822)

The season over the greater part of its range is between April and July. The nest is a neat compact cup of rootlets and bast fibres well bound with cobwebs and copiously bedecked on the outside with pieces of bark, green moss and lichens. These serve to make the nest remarkably inconspicuous in its surroundings. It is placed on the upper surface of a branch 10 to 40 feet from the ground, in humid forest. The eggs—two to four in number—are of a pale sea-green colour, spotted and blotched with dark brown and lavender. Iioth sexes share in building and care of the young.

About that of the Bulbul.

Adult male glossy jet black and deep scarlet. Female and young male with pale yellow underparts and no black on head or back.

Small flocks are constantly on the move, foraging for insects in the canopy of evergreen and deciduous forests, and plantations. Song consists of rapid whistled notes, `twit-twee-twee-wheet ´

This gorgeous Minivet is a resident of well-wooded country and evergreen jungle. It is exclusively arboreal. It goes about in flocks, often of 20 or more birds, which keep mostly to the leafy canopy of the forest, flitting restlessly among the foliage or following one another about from tree to tree in search of food. This consists mostly of insects and their larva; and is secured among the leaves and buds or on the moss-covered tree trunks. Sometimes they are captured in the air in the manner of a flycatcher. The call notes, frequently uttered, are a pleasant whistling whee-twect or whi-ri-ri, whi-ri-ri, etc.

Flocks in forest.

Seen mostly in well wooded country and evergreen forest.

Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern ver 3.1

IUCN Redlist Status: Least Concern