Golden-breasted fulvetta
The golden-breasted fulvetta ("Lioparus chrysotis") is a species of songbird found in Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Vietnam. Its natural habitats are temperate forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. Taxonomy. When Edward Blyth first described the golden-breasted fulvetta in 1845, from a written description provided by naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson of a specimen collected in Nepal, he gave it the scientific name "Proparus chrysotis". Most ornithologists kept it in that genus until 1889, when Eugene William Oates created the genus "Lioparus" and named the golden-breasted fulvetta as its type species and  sole member. He moved the species out of the genus "Proparus" because it had a broader bill, much longer (bristles hanging over the nostrils) and smaller hind claws than other species in the genus. There are six recognized subspecies: Description. The golden-breasted fulvetta is a small bird, measuring in length with a mass between . The head and crown are black or grey and the black wings have orange-yellow slashes. The secondaries are tipped white and brown tail has two thirds of the base edged in orange yellow. The underparts are predominantly yellow and the throat may be grey  or yellowish depending on the populations. The presence, prominence and colour of the median crown stripe varies with populations. The sexes are indistinguishable by plumage. Range and habitat. The golden-breasted fulvetta is found from central Nepal through Bhutan, northern India and Myanmar to western China and northern Vietnam. It is an altitudinal migrant, moving from breeding grounds at to foothills as low as , and occasionally down to , in the winter. Golden-breasted fulvettas are found in broad-leaved evergreen forests and montane bamboo where they forage at a low height for insects, moving in groups of as many as  30 individuals in winter, and often joining mixed-species foraging flocks. Conservation and threats. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the golden-breasted fulvetta as a species of least concern. Although its population has not been quantified and is thought to be declining, the decline is not thought to be precipitous, and its overall range is vast. In recent times, there has been growing pressure on some populations, with people collecting them as a food source or as pets. Several species of feather mite have been described from specimens of the golden-breasted fulvetta including "Timalinyssus grallator , Neocalcealges chrysotis", "Anhemialge lioparus" and "Resartor extraneus" from China.