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Rufous-fronted Tailorbird - BirdForum Opus

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Orthotomus frontalis

Identification

12 cm, a typical tailorbird.

  • Rufous chestnut forehead, lores and patch around eye
  • Dark grey rest of upper head and head side
  • Yellowish-green upperparts
  • Reddish-brown long graduated tail, greenish edging towards base
  • Medium grey throat, chin and lower ear-coverts, streaked whitish
  • Greyish-white lower underparts, with greenish-yellow wash on flanks and undertail-coverts
  • mearnsi with chestnut of forehead extending back to crown centre.

Sexes similar. Juveniles are more greenish on head.

Similar species

Differs from Philippine Tailorbird by grey hood and rufous restricted to frontal mask.

Distribution

South Philippines.
Rather common in its small range.

Taxonomy

Two subspecies recognized:

  • O. f. frontalis on Samar, Leyte, Dinagat, Bohol and Mindanao (south Philippines)
  • O. f. mearnsi on Basilan (south Philippines)

Forms a superspecies with Philippine Tailorbird and Dark-necked Tailorbird and all three have been considered conspecific.

Habitat

Moist lowland forest, prefers forest edges and clearings with some secondary growth.

Behaviour

Diet

Feeds on insects.
Forages low in undergrowth, often difficult to see. Behaviour very similar to Philippine Tailorbird.

Breeding

One described nest from Basilan in March. The nest is placed near the tip of a branch or a drooping fern frond, one or more leaves are sewn together to form a pouch. Lays 2 to 3 eggs.

Movements

This is a resident species.

Reference

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2014. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.9., with updates to August 2014. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2015. IOC World Bird Names (version 5.2). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
  3. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved June 2015)

Recommended Citation

External Links

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