The plain flowerpecker (''Dicaeum minullum'') is a

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the family

Dicaeidae The flowerpeckers are a family (biology), family, Dicaeidae, of passerine birds. The family comprises three genera, ''Dicaeum'', ''Prionochilus'' and ''Pachyglossa'', with 56 species in total. The family has sometimes been included in an enlarge ...

. The species was described and given its binomial name by

Robert Swinhoe Robert Swinhoe FRS (1 September 1836 – 28 October 1877) was an English diplomat and naturalist who worked as a Consul in Qing-era Taiwan (then known to Westerners as Formosa). He catalogued many Southeast Asian birds, and several, such as ...

in 1870. It is found in the central Himalayas, through western

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Description

These birds are tiny (9 cm long) and there is no marked difference between the males and females. The subspecies found in northeastern India, extending into Myanmar, Laos and southern China is called ''olivaceum'' by earlier authors but is treated by Pamela C. Rasmussen as a separate species ''Dicaeum minullum'' (which includes the population ''minullum'' from Hainan Island and is now termed as the plain flowerpecker in the more restricted sense).

Behaviour and ecology

Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones immediately to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Ge ...

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

moist lowland

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

s. Like many flowerpeckers, it favours mistletoe for foraging.

References

plain flowerpecker Birds of South China Birds of Eastern Himalaya Birds of Southeast Asia plain flowerpecker Taxa named by Robert Swinhoe {{Dicaeidae-stub