Yellow-vented Flowerpecker Dicaeum chrysorrheum has a vast range, from the Himalayan foothills of India and Nepal to the Greater Sundas. China, however, just skirts the range: Race chrysochlore occurs only in Yunnan, with some records from Ruili in the southwest and more from Xishuangbanna in the far south. Habitat and habits like those of other flowerpeckers; there is a preference for moist broadleaved forests in lowlands (to about 1000 m in Yunnan) and a fondness for mistletoe berries. Figs, nectar, and insects also regularly consumed. The yellow-vented is more striking than the nondescript thick-billed flowerpecker. Has diagnostic strong black markings (weaker on lower belly) on white underparts and bright yellow undertail coverts. White throat and malar divided by strongly dark lateral throat stripe. Yellowish-green above, with white loral stripe. Flight feathers and tail blackish. Bill black, thin, slightly decurved; feet black; iris orange. Often nervously vocal during flights in canopy; sharp, thin calls, sometimes delivered repeatedly from perches. — 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.
