Red-billed Leiothrix Life History

Habitat

Red-billed Leiothrix inhabit dense vegetation in the forest understory. In their native range in Asia, they occur at elevations of 75 to 3,400 meters (250 to 11,200 feet) in broadleaf, coniferous, and mixed forests; forest edges; second-growth forest; tea plantations; and bamboo patches. Red-billed Leiothrix in Hawaii use both native and non-native forests with a dense understory. They are most common in native Hawaiian wet forests above 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) but also reside in dry forests on the islands of Maui and Hawaii.

Food

Red-billed Leiothrix eat a fairly even mix of fruit and invertebrates. Common invertebrate prey include butterflies, moths, caterpillars, bees, wasps, flies, snails, spiders, and millipedes. Leiothrix typically forage in low, dense vegetation within 3 meters (10 feet) of the ground. They pluck fruit and pick insects from foliage and twigs, but usually do not forage on trunks.

Nesting

Nest Placement

Built in a fork of low horizontal branches, typically less than 4 meters (13 feet) above the ground.

Nest Description

A cup made of grasses, dead leaves, mosses, and lichens, with the inside lined with fine rootlets and grasses, soft plant fibers, and stems.

Nesting Facts

Behavior

Red-billed Leiothrix are very active birds, moving quickly within dense vegetation with short flights and swift hops. They forage in pairs during the breeding season; at other times of the year they move about in groups that often include 4–6 birds but sometimes swell to 20 or even 100 individuals. Red-billed Leiothrix appear to be monogamous, and at least in captivity, pairs mate for life. In captivity, both sexes incubate the eggs and feed the nestlings. Although adult birds eat both fruit and invertebrates, parents feed only invertebrates to young nestlings. The nestlings fledge after 10–12 days and join leiothrix flocks sometime after fledging.

Conservation

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists Red-billed Leiothrix’s conservation status as Least Concern. While its population trend appears to be decreasing and its population size is unknown, this species has an extremely large range, suggesting that the population is greater than the Vulnerable threshold of 10,000 mature individuals.

Credits

BirdLife International. 2024. Leiothrix lutea. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2024: e.T22716522A264201155. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2024-2.RLTS.T22716522A264201155.en.

Brazil, M. (2009). Field Guide to the Birds of East Asia: Eastern China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Eastern Russia. Christopher Helm, London, UK.

Grimmett, R., C. Inskipp, and T. Inskipp (2011). A Guide to the Birds of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Second edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.

Male, T. D., S. G. Fancy, and C. J. Ralph (2020). Red-billed Leiothrix (Leiothrix lutea), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.reblei.01

Pratt, H.D., Bruner, P.L. and Berrett, D.G. (1987). A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, New Jersey.

Raine, H. and A. F. Raine (2020). American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of Hawai'i. Scott & Nix, Inc. New York, NY, USA.

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