Thick-billed Flowerpecker Dicaeum agile has an extremely large range in Asia (Pakistan to Lesser Sundas, east to Philippines) and an extremely small range in China, with pallescens resident in southern Yunnan. Like other flowerpeckers, lives in lowlands in well-wooded areas, feeding mainly on berries and nectar but taking insects. Wags tail from side to side when perched. Drab, short-tailed, with a noticeably stout, grey bill. Crown, face, and mantle mostly brownish-grey, with more of an olive-green tone on rump and wings (feather edges). Light buffy underparts faintly streaked. White throat and malar divided by dark lateral throat stripe. Dark tail tipped white. Feet grey; iris orange. Juvenile’s bill has paler base to mandible; lacks lateral throat stripe and streaking. Sharp, monotonous chip-chip call, lower-pitched than that of most other flowerpeckers. — Craig Brelsford
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.
