Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker Dicaeum cruentatum ranges India to Greater Sundas, with cruentatum southeast Tibet to Fujian and Hainan. HABITAT & BEHAVIOR Moist lowland forests, also gardens and parks, even in urban areas, to 1000 m (3,280 ft.). Takes berries of fruiting mistletoe in canopy. ID Male has black face mask reaching down to breast sides. Wings and tail dark blue. Blood red from forehead to uppertail coverts. Underparts creamy white; flanks grey. Female olive-green with blackish wings and tail and blood-red uppertail coverts and rump; underparts greyish with white throat and central belly. Juvenile like female but rump plain olive-green to orangeish, never red. BARE PARTS Feet black, bill black (orange in juvenile). VOICE Song thin, sometimes trilling and squeaky. One song consists of a long, rising, thin note followed by 5–10 faster, higher-pitched notes. Calls include thin zit and harsh chit chit chit. — Craig Brelsford
THE FLOWERPECKERS OF CHINA
shanghaibirding.com covers every species in the family Dicaeidae in China. Click any link:
Thick-billed Flowerpecker Dicaeum agile
Yellow-vented Flowerpecker D. chrysorrheum
Yellow-bellied Flowerpecker D. melanozanthum
Plain Flowerpecker D. minullum
Fire-breasted Flowerpecker D. ignipectus
Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker D. cruentatum
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Daniel Bengtsson served as chief ornithological consultant for Craig Brelsford’s Photographic Field Guide to the Birds of China, from which this species description is drawn.
