Cutia Cutia nipalensis

Cutia Cutia nipalensis

(aka Himalayan Cutia)

Lingmethang Road, Mongar, Bhutan
April 2008

The Cutia is distributed along the foothills of the Himalayas and into Myanmar, Indochina and Malaysia. Some authorities regard the two sub-species found in Vietnam and southern Laos as being a separate species, the Vietnamese Cutia.

It is found in broad leafed forest covered with moss and epiphytes in which it forages for insects and their larvae, seeds and berries.

A member of the babbler family, it has a blue-grey crown, a black mask and black barring on the flanks. The wings are black with blue-grey panels while the mantle and upper tail coverts are chestnut. The tail is balckish.

The duller female, not shown here, has dark spots on the mantle.

Its habit of creeping along trunks and branches is reminiscent of a Nuthatch.

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