White-bellied Erpornis

The white-bellied erpornis, or simply erpornis, is the only member of the genus Erpornis. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, in subtropical or tropical moist montane forest. In its colouring, morphology and acrobatic habits it resembles a vireo quite a lot, but has a prominent crest like many yuhinas, which with its unusual biogeography obscured its true relationships for a long time. The crested head, back, wings and tail are olivaceous or golden brown and the underparts white (Wikipedia, general species account).

It has well-developed musculature for gaping, opening the bill forcefully, and may use this to pry bark from trees to seek insects. SoIB 2023 rates it a Low conservation priority, a resident forest bird that eats invertebrates, with a Moderate range of about 90,600 km² and insufficient data on the long-term trend (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).