Thick-billed flowerpecker
| Thick-billed flowerpecker | |
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| D. a. modestum from Kaeng Krachan, Phetchaburi, Thailand | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Dicaeidae |
| Genus: | Dicaeum |
| Species: | D. agile |
| Binomial name | |
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Dicaeum agile (Tickell, 1833) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Piprisoma squalidum |
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Piprisoma squalidum
The thick-billed flowerpecker (Dicaeum agile) is a tiny bird in the flowerpecker group. They feed predominantly on fruits and are active birds that are mainly seen in the tops of trees in forests. It is a resident bird with a wide distribution across tropical southern Asia from India east to Indonesia and Timor with several populations recognized as subspecies some of which are sometimes treated as full species.
This species flowerpecker is about 10 cm long and has a dark stout beak and short tail. They are dark grey brown above and dull greyish with diffuse streaking on light buffy underparts. The rump is slightly more olive in the nominate race. The bill is dark, somewhat stout and heavy and the iris is reddish. The sexes are not distinguishable in the field and the juvenile has a paler base to the mandible and less streaks on the underside. There are whitish spots at the tip of the tail feathers. The nominate race is found on the plains of the mainland of the Indian Subcontinent. The Sri Lankan population, zeylonense (=zeylonicum, zeylonica), is smaller and darker above. and Subspecies modestum (including pallescens) is found in northeastern India and extends into Burma. Several island forms have been described but some of them are only tentatively kept within this species. These include atjehense of Sumatra, finschi of western Java, tinctum of Sumba, Flores and Alor, obsoletum from Timor, striatissimum, aeruginosum and affine from the Philippines. Several of these such as aeruginosum are considered as full species as they are reproductively isolated and distinct in morphology.
Like other flowerpeckers they feed mainly on berries, nectar but sometimes take insects. Many of the subspecies are found in dense lowland forests with the exception of the nominate race which is found mainly in cultivated areas or open forest.
Unlike the pale-billed flowerpecker, it does not swallow the berries of Loranthus (some species now in genus Dendrophthoe) and instead wipes the seeds on a branch and feeds on the epicarp. This makes it disperse the parasitic mistletoe locally unlike the other species. In Sri Lanka, they forage at a greater height in the canopy than the pale-billed flowerpecker.
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Wikipedia