Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Pink Garden-Bird

Yes, that's what we call this tiny black, white and red bird in Thai language. The Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker (Dicaeum cruentatum) is a very common bird that can be found even in your garden. However, I really don't understand why it is called "pink" in Thai, when it's definitely bright scarlet! We also have another bird called the "pink" forest-bird, and it's the Red Avadavat (Amandava amandava), which male bird has bright reddish plumage and it doesn't live in forests. Sometimes bird names can also be confused, really....


I photographed this beautiful male at Cho Lae several weeks ago. There were many individuals flying in and out of the fruiting Jamaican cherry trees along the track in the middle of the rice fields. This male bird caught my eyes with its bright scarlet back when it flew into the cherry tree in front of me. Lucky enough, this guy posed for me well showing his glossy black upperwing coverts contrasting with fiery crown and back.
Jamaican cherry (Muntingia calabura) is one of the bird's most favourite menus. You can see how tiny the bird is comparing to the size of the small cherry. It is just roughly 10 cm long!


Just like any other flowerpeckers, the Scarlet-backed also has the habit of wiping off its dropping by using tree branch. I have photographed the Fire-breasted Flowerpecker doing the same thing as well. The seeds in the bird's dropping can later grow into a new tree. The series of photos above perfectly shows how process of wiping off is done!

4 comments:

Stuart Price said...

Wow, cute AND toilet trained!!!!!

Unknown said...

Oh this bird looks so punk. I'm pretty sure that I caught a fleeting glimpse of it before. Like it and love your photographs as always, Admirable !

Friend of HK said...

Thank you for stopping by my blog.

Love to see the colourful birds and interesting wildlife in Japan!

Phil Slade said...

Cracking pictures A especially considering the size of the bird. Pretty clever of the flowerpecker wiping its backside like that.