Alternative Name: Common Goldenback
- Dinopium javanense
Identification
Size - 30cm (12in). Golden mantle and wings, red lower back and rump, white face with two black malar strips and largely black hindneck with white sides of neck together with whitish underparts marked with blackish scales, distinctive. Throat and face tinged rufous or buff. Has three toes. Brown iris.
Male - Crown and pointed crest red (in picture).
Female - Crown and crest black with whitish spots from forehead to the tip of the crest.
Difficult to separate from Greater Flameback (Goldenback) from lateral view, especially at a distance. Best separated by colour of iris and hindneck pattern.
Distribution
India to Indochina; Greater Sundas; Philippines.
Taxonomy
Subspecies[1]
- D. j. malabaricum in wet woodlands of w India
- D. j. intermedium in Bangladesh and Assam to Burma, sw China and Indochina
- D. j. javanense from Peninsular Thailand to Sumatra, Riau Arch., w Java and Borneo
- D. j. exsul on E Java and Bali
- D. j. raveni on Eraban I. and adjacent ne Borneo
- D. j. everetti on S Philippines (Balabac, Palawan and Calamian Islands)
Habitat
Mangroves, forest edges, peat swamp forests, coastal scrub and plantations.
Behaviour
Usually seen in pairs, largely on tree trunks and stems probing soft bark for insects and grubs. Very social, regularly call out to each other.
Vocalisation
Voice: a sharp churrrr and klek-klek in flight.
References
- Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
