Chinese Hwamei

Basic Description

The Chinese Hwamei is a loud but shy species, delivering melodious songs and foraging noisily in leaf litter as it skulks in dense shrubs, thickets, and bamboo. This medium-sized songbird is patterned largely in brown and rufous tones but sports a conspicuous blue-and-white “spectacle” around each eye that gives the bird its name (hwamei is Chinese for "painted eyebrows”). Native to southeastern China and adjacent areas of Southeast Asia, the Chinese Hwamei has been introduced to Japan, Taiwan, and the Hawaiian Islands.