Himalayan Cutia Cutia nipalensis

Himalayan Cutia Cutia nipalensis
(aka Cutia)

Lingmethang Road, Mongar, Bhutan
April 2008

The Himalayan Cutia is distributed along the foothills of the Himalayas and into Myanmar, Indochina and Malaysia. See the distribution map at Birdlife International. Some authorities such as the HBW and Birdlife International checklist regard the two sub-species found in Vietnam and southern Laos as being a separate species, the Vietnamese Cutia Cutia legalleni.

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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