Sulphur-billed Nuthatch
BAGUIO, PHILIPPINES — Pine forest. Nuthatches. Shrikes. Crows. (Sounding like North America? Well, I’ll keep going.) Bulbuls. Babblers. Swiftlets. White-eyes. Ah yes, this is Asia.
The Sulphur-billed Nuthatch (Sitta oenochlamys), with which I first became acquainted this morning, is endemic to the Philippines. I think its bright yellow eye-wattle makes it look rather comical.
This angle shows the bird’s black forehead patch and eyelines. The forehead patch and bare skin around the eyes are shared with S. frontalis and S. solangiae, which occur in other parts of Asia. In the past, they have all been lumped as S. frontalis, Velvet-fronted Nuthatch. Relationships among these taxa are not yet clear.
I noticed that the birds have pale grayish patches on their backs.
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Wow! How long will you be there for? That nuthatch is awesome.
What a beautiful nuthatch!