Rosy Minivet Pericrocotus roseus ranges from Himalayas in Pakistan to southern Vietnam, and in southern China from Sichuan to Guangdong. Found in moist broadleaved forests to 1500 m. Male has grey crown, mantle and shoulders; dark lores sometimes extends as an eyeline through the eye; pale eye-brow and broken white eye-ring. Black wings with orange-red on greater wing coverts, tertial edges, and panel along flight feathers (seen as wing bar in flight). Central tail feathers black; rest of tail mostly orange-red with black base. Rump and upper tail coverts orange-red, but rump sometimes mainly grey. Throat grayish-white, rest of underparts with distinctive pinkish wash. On upperparts of female, faint yellow replaces red of male; on underparts, pinkish wash of male replaced by very pale yellow wash. Female rosy is less yellow than all other minivets in China, with only faint yellow on rump and no yellow at all on head or throat. Some consider the ashy, rosy, and Swinhoe’s to be a superspecies; the relationship with the Swinhoe’s is particularly close, as the two species apparently interbreed in Guangdong. Swinhoe’s-rosy hybrid male is patterned like Swinhoe’s but has hint of red on forecrown, wings, rump, tail, and underparts. In female hybrid, pale yellow replaces pink of male, but there is no yellowish tinge to forecrown. Bill and feet black. Metallic trill virtually indistinguishable from that of Swinhoe’s minivet, but usually shorter and hence less trilling than ashy’s. — Craig Brelsford
THE CUCKOOSHRIKES OF CHINA
shanghaibirding.com covers every species in the family Campephagidae in China. Click any link below:
Grey-chinned Minivet Pericrocotus solaris
Short-billed Minivet P. brevirostris
Long-tailed Minivet P. ethologus
Scarlet Minivet P. speciosus
Ashy Minivet P. divaricatus
Swinhoe’s Minivet P. cantonensis
Rosy Minivet P. roseus
Large Cuckooshrike Coracina macei
Black-winged Cuckooshrike Lalage melaschistos
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Daniel Bengtsson served as chief ornithological consultant for Craig Brelsford’s Photographic Field Guide to the Birds of China, from which this species description is drawn.
