Ebird describes it as "Tiny songbird of montane forests in the Philippines, where it is found on Luzon, Mindanao, and the Western Visayas. Adult male is dark blue above and pale creamy white below, with a black stripe leading down the belly from a brilliantly red patch like a bloodstain on the breast and lower throat. Female is much plainer, brownish-olive above and pale buff below; compare with Pygmy Flowerpecker, which has a bicolored and more slender downcurved bill. Often forages at flowers blooming in the canopy. Gives a thin, high-pitched "tsee'ee", as well as a short, high-pitched series with a similar cadence. Formerly treated as a subspecies of Fire-breasted Flowerpecker."[2] The fire-throated flowerpecker was formally described in 1894 by the Scottish ornithologist William Robert Ogilvie-Grant based on specimens collected by the zoologist and explorer John Whitehead in the mountains of northern Luzon in the Philippines. Ogilvie-Grant coined the binomial nameDicaeum luzoniense.[3][4] The fire-throated flowerpecker was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the fire-breasted flowerpecker (Dicaeum ignipectus) species complex, which includes the Cambodian flowerpecker, Sumatran flowerpecker. It is differentiated by a less extensive amount of red with it mostly in the throat, hence the name Fire-throated instead of Fire-breasted, slightly larger size and substantial differences in voicee in which its song is at a slower paced and lower [5]
D. l. apo Hartert, EJO, 1904 – Western Visayas and Mindanao (central west, south Philippines); similar to nominate but head and neck sides are glossier, the vent and undeertail brighter and the sides on abdomen are darker.
D. l. bongaHartert, EJO, 1904 – Samar (central east Philippines); smaller and male has a darker head. It was only known from its holotype collected in 1896 at just 100 meters above sea level which has been the only true lowland record of this species. For over a century, it was theorized that this specimen was mislabled but in 2025 this subspecies was photographed for the first time ever.[6][7]
Ecology and behavior
Not much is known about its diet but it is pressumed to have the typical flowerpecker diet of small fruits, insects, nectar especially from mistletoes. Typically seen singly or in pairs and does not form large groups of its own species but joins mixed species flocks.[4]
Habitat and conservation status
Its natural habitats are tropical moist montane forest from 1,000 meters above sea level. However, the Samar subspecies bonga was collected in 1896 below 100 meters above sea level and in 2025 at 200 meters above sea level in primary moist lowland forest.
The IUCN has classified the species as being of Least Concern despite being uncommon across its range. Montane forest faces less deforestation compared to lowland forest but deforestation in the Philippines continues due to slash-and-burn farming, land conversion and mining.
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