Thick-billed Flowerpecker (Dicaeum agile) [XC474073]
by Frank Lambert from Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary area, Idukki, Kerala, India (call)
Thick-billed Flowerpecker (Dicaeum agile) [XC97385]
by Mandar Bhagat from vansda national park, India (call)
Subspecies
Shares tongue morphology with Yellow-sided Flowerpecker (Dicaeum aureolimbatum), Bicoloured Flowerpecker (Dicaeum bicolor) and Grey-sided Flowerpecker (Dicaeum celebicum). Poorly known northern Natuna subspecies bungurense of Brown-backed Flowerpecker (Dicaeum everetti) (known only from the type specimen) possibly belongs with present species. Philippine subspecies (striatissimum, affine and aeruginosum) sometimes considered to represent a separate species. Other subspecies fall into two further groups, one in western (nominate and zeylonicum) and the other from north-eastern India and south-eastern Asia south to Sundas (remaining subspecies), these groups possibly representing two additional species. Moreover, finschi is perhaps sufficiently distinctive to be considered a separate species.
Other proposed subspecies are deignani (described from Kohima, in Assam) and separabile (from Dalat, in central Vietnam), both synonymized with pallescens, and remotum (from Negri Sembilan, in Peninsular Malaysia), considered indistinguishable from modestum.
The following 11 subspecies are recognised:
agile (Tickell, 1833) - North-eastern Pakistan east to western Bangladesh
and south through peninsular India.
zeylonicum (Whistler, 1944) - Sri Lanka.
pallescens (Riley, 1935) - North-eastern India (southern Assam,
Meghalaya), eastern Bangladesh, and Myanmar (except north, western and south-west),
Thailand (except southern and east), Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam (except
Tonkin); probably also southern China (southern Yunnan).
modestum (Hume, 1875) - Southern peninsular Thailand,
Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo.
atjehense Delacour, 1946 - North-eastern and southern Sumatra.
finschi Bartels, MEG, 1914 - Western Java.
tinctum (Mayr, 1944) - Lesser Sundas (Sumba, Flores and
Alor).
obsoletum (Müller, S, 1843) - Timor.
striatissimum Parkes, 1962 - Luzon, Lubang, Romblon,
Sibuyan and Catanduanes (northern Philippines). Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Striped Flowerpecker (Dicaeum aeruginosum).
affine (J. T. Zimmer, 1918) - Palawan (western Philippines). Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Striped Flowerpecker (Dicaeum aeruginosum).
aeruginosum (Bourns and Worcester, 1894) - Philippines. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Striped Flowerpecker (Dicaeum aeruginosum).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet