Scarlet-headed flowerpecker

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Scarlet-headed flowerpecker
Scarlet-headed Flowerpecker (Dicaeum trochileum trochileum).jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Dicaeidae
Genus: Dicaeum
Species:
D. trochileum
Binomial name
Dicaeum trochileum
(Sparrman, 1789)

The scarlet-headed flowerpecker (Dicaeum trochileum) is a bird species in the family of Dicaeidae . It is a species endemic to Indonesia. [2] This flowerpecker inhabits a few islands of the archipelago of Indonesia. [3] It is mainly observed in open wooden areas, gardens, and mangroves. [3] [4]

Contents

As of today, D. trochileum population is stable. The IUCN has classified its conservation status to Least Concern.

This species is not well studied.

Description

The scarlet-headed flowerpecker body length can reach up to eight to nine centimeters after maturity. [5]

The red to orange upper body of the males is the main characteristic that distinguishes them from the females. [3] Their red plumage covers their head, their back, their rump and their throat. [3] Their wings are black with blue pigmentation. [3] Their legs are black, and their beak is grey. [3] The tip of their tail is black. [3]

The females have a light grey to brown head and back. [3] Their orange to red rumps characterize the females' morphology. [3] Similarly to the males, their legs are black, their beak is grey, and the tip of their tail is black. [3] Their wings are lighter than the male's wings colour, and they are missing the blue coloration. [3]

The morphology of the juveniles resembles more that of the females than that of the males. The small size and lighter body colours characterize the youngs. They have a light grey beak with pale brown wings and a pale grey to yellow belly. [3]

Taxonomy

This species is from the family Dicaeidae and in the genus Dicaeum. This genus was first named by George Cuvier, a French anatomist, in 1817. [6] The species' name Dicaeum trochileum was given by Anders Sparrman in 1789. [7]

Distribution and habitat

The scarlet-headed flowerpecker is endemic to a few islands of the archipelago of Indonesia. It mainly inhabits the islands of Java and Bali. [2] A few individuals have been reported on Lombok and Sumatra islands, and in Southeastern Borneo. [2]

It mostly inhabits open woodlands, gardens and mangroves. [3] [4] This bird's presence has also been reported on the seacoast and in the lowlands of Sumatra Island. [2] It is found between the sea level and up to a maximum of 600 meters in altitude. [3]

Many tourists travel to the region of Taro on the island of Bali to observe this bird. [8]

Behavior

Vocalization

The scarlet-headed flowerpecker can be easily recognized by its call. It makes high and acute short notes. [9] Its vocals are either a “zit-zit-zit” sound or “seeeeep…seeeeep”. [3] Every pitch last from two to three and a half seconds. [9] [3]

Diet

The scarlet-headed flowerpecker feeds mostly on small berries, insects, nectar and pollen. [3] [2] It is often seen in milkweed and mistletoe grooves, foraging the plants' berries. [2] [10] The aggressivity of this small bird allows it to perch low in trees and its small size helps it to move through the dense branches of the mistletoes to find its berries. [10] It will forage either alone or with a partner. [3]

Reproduction

The nest of this species is about 70–80 × 30–35 mm made from grass and leaves. [2] Milkweed fibers have also been found in their nests. [10] Their eggs are white, sometimes glossed and they have a dark red dot at one end. [3] This flowerpecker lays the eggs in a large hole dug in the middle of the nests. [3]

Both males and females are found in the nest, taking care of their chick together. [11]

Moulting and breeding

There are individuals of scarlet-headed flowerpecker moulting all year round, but a higher number of individuals moult in July. [12] The individuals calibrate their moulting with the abundance and quality of the food resources they can find. [12]

The breeding season of this species changes depending on the island and the region each individual inhabits. [2] In West Java, the breeding season extends from January to October whereas, in East and Central Java, it is generally from April to May. [2]

History

In 1938, the morphology of some unidentified bird species exhibited in the Buitenzorg Museum in Borneo was analyzed because of the similarities between their morphology, and that of the scarlet-headed flowerpecker and the sundanese flowerpecker ( Dicaeum cruentatum). [13] The unidentified bird species have been hypothesized to be a hybridization of these two flowerpeckers. [13] The bird found have similarly colored underparts, wings and tails feathers as in both flowerpeckers. Its other morphological features are either similar to the scarlet-headed flowerpecker or to the Sundanese flowerpecker. [13] An overlap of their habitat could explain how the two birds could have reproduced together. [13]

Conservation status

This species's conservation status is Least concern. The human presence and the noise disturbance affect this bird's activity during the day. [5] This flowerpecker is more active in the morning when it is silent and deserted of human presence. However, those disturbances do not affect the population's reproduction and survival, making this species' population's number stable. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flowerpecker</span> Family of birds

The flowerpeckers are a family, Dicaeidae, of passerine birds. The family comprises two genera, Dicaeum and Prionochilus, with 50 species in total. The family has sometimes been included in an enlarged sunbird family Nectariniidae. The berrypeckers of the family Melanocharitidae and the painted berrypeckers, Paramythiidae, were once lumped into this family as well. The family is distributed through tropical southern Asia and Australasia from India east to the Philippines and south to Australia. The family has a wide range occupying a wide range of environments from sea level to montane habitats. Some species, such as the mistletoebird of Australia, are recorded as being highly nomadic over parts of their range.

<i>Dicaeum</i> Genus of birds

Dicaeum is a genus of birds in the flowerpecker family Dicaeidae, a group of passerines tropical southern Asia and Australasia from India east to the Philippines and south to Australia. The genus Dicaeum is closely related to the genus Prionochilus and forms a monophyletic group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thick-billed flowerpecker</span> Species of bird

The thick-billed flowerpecker is a tiny bird in the flowerpecker group. They feed predominantly on fruits and are active birds that are mainly seen in the tops of trees in forests. It is a resident bird with a wide distribution across tropical southern Asia from India east to Indonesia and Timor with several populations recognized as subspecies some of which are sometimes treated as full species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olive-crowned flowerpecker</span> Species of bird

The olive-crowned flowerpecker is a small passerine bird in the flowerpecker family, Dicaeidae. It is found in far western New Guinea and on adjacent islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mistletoebird</span> Species of bird

The mistletoebird, also known as the mistletoe flowerpecker, is a species of flowerpecker native to most of Australia and also to the eastern Maluku Islands of Indonesia in the Arafura Sea between Australia and New Guinea. The mistletoebird eats mainly the berries of the parasitic mistletoe and is a vector for the spread of the mistletoe's seeds through its digestive system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chestnut-breasted malkoha</span> Species of bird

The chestnut-breasted malkoha is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. Found in Southeast Asia from Myanmar through to eastern Java, the Philippines and Borneo, it is a large cuckoo measuring up to 49 cm (19 in) with grey and dark green upperparts and chestnut underparts, and a large curved pale upper mandible. The male and female are similar in plumage. Unlike many cuckoos, it builds its nest and raises its own young.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Javan kingfisher</span> Species of bird

The Javan kingfisher, sometimes called the blue-bellied kingfisher or Java kingfisher, is a medium-sized kingfisher endemic to the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grey-sided flowerpecker</span> Species of bird

The grey-sided flowerpecker is a species of bird in the family Dicaeidae. It is endemic to Indonesia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scarlet-backed flowerpecker</span> Species of bird

The scarlet-backed flowerpecker is a species of passerine bird in the flowerpecker family Dicaeidae. Sexually dimorphic, the male has navy blue upperparts with a bright red streak down its back from its crown to its tail coverts, while the female and juvenile are predominantly olive green. It is found in subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and occasionally gardens in a number of countries throughout South and East Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brown-backed flowerpecker</span> Species of bird

The brown-backed flowerpecker is a species of bird in the family Dicaeidae. The scientific name commemorates British colonial administrator and zoological collector Alfred Hart Everett.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fire-breasted flowerpecker</span> Species of bird

The fire-breasted flowerpecker is a species of bird in the family Dicaeidae found in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Like other flowerpeckers, this tiny bird feeds on fruits and plays an important role in the dispersal of fruiting plants. Unlike many other species in the genus, this species has marked sexual dimorphism with the male having contrasting upper and lower parts with a distinctive bright orange breast patch. The female is dull coloured.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-sided flowerpecker</span> Species of bird

The black-sided flowerpecker, also known as the Bornean flowerpecker, is a species of bird in the family Dicaeidae. It is endemic to the island of Borneo, where it is found in the mountains, primarily above 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in elevation. The species is sexually dimorphic. The male has glossy blue-black upperparts, with a scarlet throat and breast, a dark grey upper belly, olive flanks, a white lower belly, and a buffy vent and undertail coverts. The female is olive-green above and greyish below, with buffy flanks and a whitish throat. It inhabits a range of forest habitats, including primary and secondary montane forest, kerangas forest, and scrub, and is also occasionally found in gardens. It feeds primarily on small fruits—particularly mistletoe berries—as well as seeds, nectar, and various invertebrates. It builds a nest of moss, camouflaged on the outside with lichens and lined with the pith of tree ferns. The International Union for Conservation of Nature rates it as a species of least concern. Though its numbers have not been quantified, the black-sided flowerpecker is said to be common throughout much of its range, and any declines are not thought to be precipitous. However, destruction of forest for palm plantations may impact it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whiskered flowerpecker</span> Species of bird

The whiskered flowerpecker is a species of bird in the family Dicaeidae. It is endemic to the island of Mindanao in the Philippines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orange-bellied flowerpecker</span> Species of bird

The orange-bellied flowerpecker is a species of bird in the family Dicaeidae. It is found in Bangladesh, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashy flowerpecker</span> Species of bird

The ashy flowerpecker is a species of bird in the family Dicaeidae. It is endemic to Indonesia where it occurs on Seram, Ambon and nearby islands in the Banda Arc. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banded broadbill</span> Species of bird from Southeast Asia

The banded broadbill is a species of bird in the typical broadbill family Eurylaimidae found in Mainland Southeast Asia and the Greater Sunda Islands. It is sometimes split into two species, one including only the nominate subspecies, E. j. javanicus, and one including all the remaining subspecies. It inhabits a variety of forests, along with forest edge, rubber plantations and Falcataria falcata groves, mainly in lowland areas. A striking, large-bodied bird with a length of 21.5–23.0 cm (8.5–9.1 in), it is unlikely to be mistaken for another species. The broadbill is mostly purplish-red, with yellow-streaked black wings, a bright blue beak, a blackish face and greyish chin and upper breast. Females can be told apart from males by their lack of a black neckband, although these are indistinct in Bornean and Javan males. Despite its conspicuous appearance, the bird is usually hard to see due to its sluggishness and is usually only noticed when it vocalises.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-winged flycatcher-shrike</span> Species of bird

The black-winged flycatcher-shrike is a species of bird in the flycatcher-shrike genus, Hemipus. It is usually placed in the Vangidae. It is found in the Malay Peninsula and the Greater Sunda Islands. Its natural habitats are lowland forests and sometimes swamps and mangroves. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as being of least concern.

<i>Prionochilus</i> Genus of birds

Prionochilus is one of two genera flowerpecker that make up the family Dicaeidae. The genus differs from the other flowerpecker genus, Dicaeum in having ten long primary feathers in the wing and in the character of its calls. A study comparing the calls of the two genera suggested that Prionochilus is basal to Dicaeum. The genus contains six species, in contrast to the 44 species in the genus Dicaeum. They have a more restricted distribution than Dicaeum, occurring in the Philippines, Borneo, Sumatra, Java and the Malay Peninsula. The name Prionochilus is derived from the Greek prion for saw, and kheilos for lip, referring to the minute serrations along the edge of the bill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plain flowerpecker</span> Species of bird

The plain flowerpecker is a bird in the family Dicaeidae. The species was described and given its binomial name by Robert Swinhoe in 1870. It is found in the central Himalayas, through western Indonesia to Taiwan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wakatobi flowerpecker</span> Subspecies of bird

The Wakatobi flowerpecker is a subspecies of the grey-sided flowerpecker that is endemic to the Wakatobi Islands of Indonesia. Some authorities consider it to be a separate species as Dicaeum kuehni.

References

  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Dicaeum trochileum". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T22717587A94541197. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22717587A94541197.en . Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Taufiqurrahman, Imam (2010). "Observation of presumed nest-building by Scarlet-headed Flowerpecker Dicaeum trochileum in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia". Birding Asia. 14: 90–91.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Robert Cheke & Clive Mann (2020). "Scarlet-headed Flowerpecker". Birds of the World. Retrieved November 12, 2021.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. 1 2 Bishop, K. David (1985). "Scarlet-headed Flowerpecker Dicaeum trochileum a new bird for Sumatra". KUKILA. 2 (1): 7–8. ISSN   0216-9223.
  5. 1 2 3 Syaqina, T Y; Mulyani, Y A; Hermawan, R (2018-10-17). "Birds activities at urban greenways in Bogor". IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. 179 (1): 012042. Bibcode:2018E&ES..179a2042S. doi: 10.1088/1755-1315/179/1/012042 . ISSN   1755-1315. S2CID   186371583.
  6. Cuvier, Georges; Laurillard, Charles Léopold; Pierron, Jean Antoine; Louvet, G. P.; Latreille, P. A. (1817). Le règne animal distribué d'après son organisation : pour servir de base a l'histoire naturelle des animaux et d'introduction a l'anatomie comparée. Vol. 1. A Paris: Chez Déterville.
  7. Salomonsen, Finn (1961). "Notes on Flowerpeckers (Aves, Dicaeidae) Dicaeum igniferum and its Derivatives" (PDF). American Museum Novitates.
  8. Ginantra, Darmadi, Gari, Sudirga, I Ketut, A.A. Ketut, Ni Made, Sang Ketut (2020). "Bird Diversity as a Tourist Attraction in the Tourism Area of the Taro Gianyar Bali" (PDF). Journal of Biological and Chemical Research. 37: 28–35.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. 1 2 "Scarlet-headed Flowerpecker - eBird". ebird.org. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
  10. 1 2 3 Sedayu, AGUNG; Sumadijaya, ALEX (2012-12-01). "Host Specificity and Characteristics of Viscum ovalifolium in Pulau Dua Mangrove, Banten, Indonesia". HAYATI Journal of Biosciences. 19 (4): 177–182. doi: 10.4308/hjb.19.4.177 . ISSN   1978-3019.
  11. TAUFIQURRAHMAN, Imam (2011). "Nesting record of Blood-breasted Flowerpecker Dicaeum sanguinolentum in Gunung Merapi National Park, Yogyakarta, Indonesia". Forktail.
  12. 1 2 Mulyani, Yeni Aryati; Tirtaningtyas, Fransisca Noni; Hadi, Nanang Khairul; Dewi, Lina Kristina; Kaban, Aronika (2017-10-01). "Molt in Birds Inhabiting a Human-Dominated Habitat". HAYATI Journal of Biosciences. 24 (4): 195–200. doi: 10.1016/j.hjb.2017.11.004 . ISSN   1978-3019.
  13. 1 2 3 4 VOOUS, K.H. & VANBEMMEL, A.C.V (1949). "ON A CASE OF HYBRIDIZATION IN DICAEUM (Aves, Dicaeidae)". Treubia. 20: 35–37.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  1. Scarlet-headed flowerpecker vocalization: https://eol.org/pages/1051724/media?subclass=sound
  2. Birds of the World: https://birdsoftheworld-org.proxy3.library.mcgill.ca/bow/species/schflo1/cur/introduction#mig