Small Minivet (Pericrocotus cinnamomeus) [XC369441]
by Peter Boesman from Road to Chidya Tapu, South Andaman County, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India (call)
Small Minivet (Pericrocotus cinnamomeus) [XC369428]
by Peter Boesman from Periyar Tiger Reserve--Thekkady, Idukki County, Kerala, India (call)
Subspecies
Forms a superspecies, and sometimes considered conspecific, with Fiery Minivet (Pericrocotus igneus) and Flores Minivet (Pericrocotus lansbergei). Relationship with Fiery Minivet (Pericrocotus igneus) not fully resolved. There is no evidence of interbreeding (except for a single, purportedly intermediate specimen) where their ranges meet, in peninsular Thailand, and different habitat preferences may prevent direct contact between them. Isolated subspecies saturatus possibly represents a different species, primarily on grounds of zoogeography. Subspecies peregrinus intergrades with pallidus and vividus in northern Indian Subcontinent. Subspecies separatus possibly better treated as synonym of vividus, as its supposedly large bill may be individually variable, rather than diagnostic. It has been suggested that birds from Andaman Is may merit treatment as a separate subspecies, for which the name osmastoni was recently proposed, but further study is required.
The following 9 subspecies are recognised:
pallidus Baker, ECS, 1920 - Pakistan (Indus Valley) and north-western India.
peregrinus (Linnaeus, 1766) - North-western Himalayas and northern India (Punjab south to northern Madhya Pradesh, east to Bihar and northern Orissa).
cinnamomeus (Linnaeus, 1766) - Central and south-eastern India (southern from southern Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and southern Orissa) and Sri Lanka.
malabaricus (Gmelin, JF, 1789) - South-western India (Karnataka, southern from Belgaum, south to Kerala).
vividus Baker, ECS, 1920 - Central Himalayas, eastern India (West Bengal, Assam), Bangladesh, western and central Myanmar, south-western and central Thailand, and Andaman Is.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet