Description:

The Red-billed Leiothrix's forages on the ground for fruit, seeds, and insects, such as butterflies, moths, millipedes, and spiders. I find this to be one of the most beautiful birds I've ever seen. Also known as Pekin Nightingale or Japanese Hill Robin.


Appearance:

General: 5.5 inches in length. Sexes similar.

Adult: Bright reddish-orange bill. Crown, lores, nape, and back are dull olive-green. Bright yellow-orange throat. Yellow chin. Dull-yellow belly and undertail coverts. Buffy or dull yellow eye ring that extends to the bill. Black primaries and secondaries with yellow-orange edges. Yellow-orange base on secondaries forms a small square patch on closed wings. Remainder of wing is olive-brown. Deeply notched tail. Pinkish legs and feet.

Juvenile: Grayish upperparts, duller red and yellow wingpatches, yellow throat with rusty breast-band, and a black bill with varying amounts of red toward the tip.


Habitat:

Underbrush areas of dense, wet and dry forests at all elevations. Native to Southern Asia. Introduced to the Hawaiian Islands around 1918.


Nesting:

3-4 pale-blue eggs with reddish-brown spots at blunt end. The eggs have an ~14 day incubation period. Fledging occurs in ? days. The nest is a cup made from leaves, moss, and lichen, and lined with fine threads of fungal substance. The nest is typically built on a horizontally forked branch. Breeds from March to August.


Observed Locations:

• Tantalus Drive, O'ahu, Hawaii