Spectacled Fulvetta Fulvetta ruficapilla is a Chinese endemic. Nominate ranges from southern Gansu, southern Shaanxi, and western Hubei to lowlands of Sichuan and sordidior is in southwest Sichuan and western and central Yunnan east to Guizhou. HABITAT & BEHAVIOR Forests, usually in hilly country, to 2500 m. Lives in small, active flocks of up to eight birds, feeding on insects and seeds. ID & COMPARISON Crown brownish (sordidior) to rufous (nominate), with black lateral crown stripes, pale supercilium, white eye-ring, dark irides, grey lores, grey mantle, and rufous belly. Wings rufous with greyish wing panel, rump rufous-brown, tail brown. Chinese fulvetta is browner and streaked, is whitish below, and has black lores and white irides and no supercilium. Manipur fulvetta has pale irides and greyish-brown crown. Taiwan fulvetta is browner and has brown throat streaking and pale irides. Bill horn; feet pink. High-pitched, tremulous trills.
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.
