Fire-throated flowerpecker

Fire-throated flowerpecker
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Dicaeidae
Genus:	Dicaeum
Species:	D. luzoniense
Binomial name
Dicaeum luzoniense Ogilvie-Grant, 1894

The fire-throated flowerpecker (Dicaeum luzoniense) is a species of bird in the flowerpecker family Dicaeidae that is found in the Philippines except on the islands of Mindoro, the Palawan group and the Sulu Archipelago. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the fire-breasted flowerpecker (Dicaeum ignipectus).

Ebird describes it as "Tiny songbird of montane forests in the Philippines, where it is found on Luzon, Mindanao, and the Western Visayas. Adult male is dark blue above and pale creamy white below, with a black stripe leading down the belly from a brilliantly red patch like a bloodstain on the breast and lower throat. Female is much plainer, brownish-olive above and pale buff below; compare with Pygmy Flowerpecker, which has a bicolored and more slender downcurved bill. Often forages at flowers blooming in the canopy. Gives a thin, high-pitched “tsee’ee”, as well as a short, high-pitched series with a similar cadence. Formerly treated as a subspecies of Fire-breasted Flowerpecker."^[2] The fire-throated flowerpecker was formally described in 1894 by the Scottish ornithologist William Robert Ogilvie-Grant based on specimens collected by the zoologist and explorer John Whitehead in the mountains of northern Luzon in the Philippines. Ogilvie-Grant coined the binomial name Dicaeum luzoniense.^[3][4] The fire-throated flowerpecker was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the fire-breasted flowerpecker (Dicaeum ignipectus) species complex, whcih includes the Cambodian flowerpecker, Sumatran flowerpecker. It is differentiated by a less extensive amount of red with it mostly in the throat, hence the name Fire-throated instea of Fire-breasted, slightly larger size and substantial differences in voicee in which its song is at a slower paced and lower ^[5]

Three subspecies are recognised:^[5]

• D. l. luzoniense Ogilvie-Grant, 1894 – montane Luzon (north Philippines)
• D. l. bonga Hartert, EJO, 1904 – Samar (central east Philippines); no recent records of this species
• D. l. apo Hartert, EJO, 1904 – Western Visayas and Mindanao (central west, south Philippines)

Not much is known about its diet but it is pressumed to have the typical flowerpecker diet of small fruits, insects, nectar especially from mistletoes. Typically seen singly or in pairs and does not form large groups of its own species but joins mixed species flocks. ^[4]

Its natural habitats are tropical moist montane forest from 1,000 meters above sea level although the mysterious subspecies in Samar, which highest point is just 890 meters above sea level and was collected in 100 meters above sea level. Most records are in the range of 1,200 to 1,500 meters above sea level.

The IUCN has classified the species as being of Least Concern despite being uncommon accross its range. Montane forest faces less deforestation compared to lowland forest but deforestation in the Philippines continues due to slash-and-burn farming, land conversion and mining.

It is found in multiple protected areas such as Mount Banahaw, Mount Kitanglad. Mount Apo, Mount Pulag and Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park but like all areas in the Philippines, protection is lax and deforestation continues despite this protection on paper. ^[6]