Brown Parrotbill

The brown parrotbill, also known as the brown suthora, is a grey-brown bird 17–19 cm long, with a long tail and a characteristic small, yellowish, parrot-like bill. A dark stripe runs above the eyes and along the sides of the crown. It is found in the central and eastern Himalaya, in Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar and Nepal, and moves in small groups, sometimes joining mixed-species foraging flocks (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in bamboo and rhododendron scrub at altitudes of 2,700–3,400 m, with some altitudinal migration down to 2,000 m in winter. It is now usually treated as a member of the family Paradoxornithidae, where its closest relative is the three-toed parrotbill. SoIB 2023 rates it a Moderate conservation priority, a resident forest bird with a Restricted range of about 9,450 km² and insufficient data on trends (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).