Exotic Red Breasted Bird Spotted In Cagayan
Sunday, February 5th, 2012|
Image courtesy Girlie Cervantes |
UPDATED 5 March 2012
This bird has been positively identified as a sub-specie of Purple-throated sunbird, indigenous to the area around Cagayan and the Babuyan Islands: Leptocoma sperata henkei
original article
This red breasted bird was spotted while walking a forest trail in Santa Ana, Cagayan, Philippines, in early February 2012. It was one of a pair that were heard calling to each other from the treetops of a remote, lowland forest area near the seashore, facing the Pacific Ocean; the other of the pair was not seen before they both flew deeper into the forest cover.
Searching the Internet we can find only the red-breasted blackbird/blackbill (Sturnella militaris) that apparently has a close approximation to the general shape and size of this bird but: the beak of our bird is much longer and thinner than that of the blackbird/blackbill; the red plumage extends to the legs whereas the blackbird's red plumage stops a long way short of the legs; and, this particular specimen is a little
