Bird Guide

Mistletoebird vs Pale-billed Flowerpecker

Mistletoebird (Dicaeum hirundinaceum)

Mistletoebird

Dicaeum hirundinaceum

Tiny9 gForest

The mistletoebird is small, 9–10 cm (3.5–3.9 in) long and 7.5–11 g (0.26–0.39 oz) weight. The male is glossy blue-black above, with a red chest and a slight red under-tail, and a black centre stripe running down its white belly. The female is dark grey above, with a white throat, light grey underparts, and just a touch of pinkish-red under the tail. The eyes, bill, and legs are black; the bill is just over a centimetre long, slender, slightly down-curved and sharply pointed. Immature birds are similar to the female, but have an orange-pink bill instead of black.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Recording: Cameron Davidson · CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Duncan McCaskill · CC BY 3.0
Pale-billed Flowerpecker (Dicaeum erythrorhynchos)

Pale-billed Flowerpecker

Dicaeum erythrorhynchos

Tiny6 gForest

This is a tiny bird, 8 cm long, and is one of the smallest birds occurring in most parts of southern India and Sri Lanka. The bird is plain brownish to olive green. The underside is buff olive and does not contrast greatly with the upperparts and not whitish as in the Nilgiri flowerpecker of the Western Ghats and Nilgiri hills nor is it streaked as in the thick-billed flowerpecker. The Nilgiri flowerpecker has a pale supercilium unlike this species which has no marking on the head. The Sri Lankan race ceylonense Babault, 1920 - is greyer and smaller than the nominate race of peninsular India.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Recording: Jairam Vijayan · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Koshy Koshy from Faridabad, Haryana, India · CC BY 2.0

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Mistletoebird and Pale-billed Flowerpecker.