Yellow-bellied Flowerpecker Dicaeum melanoxanthum occurs northern India to Vietnam, in China from southeast Tibet and western Sichuan to Yunnan. HABITAT & BEHAVIOR More enterprising than most flowerpeckers, with seasonal migrations taking it as high as 4000 m (13,120 ft.). Eats mainly mistletoe berries. ID Diagnostic white throat stripe extends to center of breast. Throat stripe contrasts sharply with blue-black breast sides, face, and upperparts of male and contrasts less sharply with corresponding greyish parts of female. Male has bright yellow belly, duller in female. White on tail tip most easily seen from beneath. Juvenile male duller and less blue than adult, but brighter than female. BARE PARTS Bill, feet dark grey. Iris chestnut in male, brown in female. VOICE Nervous, buzzing calls. — Craig Brelsford
THE FLOWERPECKERS OF CHINA
shanghaibirding.com covers every species in the family Dicaeidae in China. Click any link:
Thick-billed Flowerpecker Dicaeum agile
Yellow-vented Flowerpecker D. chrysorrheum
Yellow-bellied Flowerpecker D. melanozanthum
Plain Flowerpecker D. minullum
Fire-breasted Flowerpecker D. ignipectus
Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker D. cruentatum
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.
