Black-rumped Flameback (Dinopium benghalense) [XC754340]
by JISHNU KIZHAKKILLAM from My House, Ranvi, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, India (call)
Black-rumped Flameback (Dinopium benghalense) [XC319957]
by Jayakrishnan U from Bardia National Park, Bheri, Mid-Western Region, Nepal (song)
Subspecies
Southern Sri Lankan subspecies sometimes referred to as erithronothos (or, erroneously, as erithronothon), but psarodes has priority. Clinal decrease in size and variation in colour from north to south, and considerable individual variation, together with intergrading of populations, all combine to make racial delimitation difficult. Western Indian birds sometimes separated as subspecies tehminae and those in northern Sri Lanka as jaffnense, but both probably more appropriately included in puncticolle.
The following 6 subspecies are recognised:
dilutum (Blyth, 1852) - Pakistan.
benghalense (Linnaeus, 1758) - North-western and northern India east to Assam and south-western Myanmar.
puncticolle (Malherbe, 1845) - Central India south to northern Sri Lanka.
psarodes (A. A. H. Lichtenstein, 1793) - Sri Lanka (except north). Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Lesser Sri Lanka Flameback (Dinopium psarodes).
tehminae (Whistler & Kinnear, 1934) - South-western India.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet