Pale-billed Flowerpecker

The pale-billed or Tickell's flowerpecker is a tiny bird about 8cm long, one of the smallest birds in much of its range. It is plain brownish to olive-green above and buff-olive below, with no markings on the head, and its pinkish curved bill separates it from other species in the region. The Nilgiri flowerpecker has whiter underparts and a pale eyebrow, and the thick-billed flowerpecker is streaked below. It has a rapid chipping call (Wikipedia, general species account).

It feeds on nectar and berries and is common in town gardens with berry-bearing trees. In forest it visits the flowers of mistletoes and swallows their berries whole; the sticky seeds pass through its gut in three or four minutes and are left on branches, making it one of the main dispersers of these parasitic plants. SoIB 2023 treats it as endemic to the Indian subcontinent and resident with a large range, finds its current trend stable, and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).