Pericrocotus speciosus
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The scarlet minivet (Pericrocotus speciosus) is a small passerine bird in the cuckooshrike family Campephagidae. This minivet is found in tropical southern Asia from Northeast India to southern China, Indonesia, and the Philippines. They are common resident breeding birds in forests and other well-wooded habitats including gardens, especially in hilly country. While the male of most subspecies are scarlet to orange with black upper parts, the females are usually yellow with greyish olive upper parts. Several former subspecies have been elevated to a species status in recent works. These include the orange minivet. All subspecies have the same habits of gleaning for insects and are often seen in mixed-species foraging flocks, usually foraging in small groups, high up in the forest canopy.
The scarlet minivet is 20–22 cm (7.9–8.7 in) long with a strong dark beak and long wings. The male has black upperparts and head, and scarlet underparts, tail edges, rump and wing patches. The shape and colour of the wing patches and the shade or orange in the male varies across populations. In the subspecies nigroluteus and marchesae from south Philippines the scarlet/orange is entirely... Wikipedia →
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Scarlet Minivet sighting in Sepilok on a given day, based on 120 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 135th most-seen of the 242 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January–February, August and October–November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Scarlet Minivet in Sepilok on a given day, against under 5% in March–July, September and December, the lowest months.
Between 3 and 6 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Scarlet Minivet sightings with a recorded time, and about half of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
21st of 28
Of the 28 parks where we can rate Scarlet Minivet sightings, Sepilok ranks 21st at under 5%. The best odds are in Royal Manas National Park (Bhutan, about 60%), Namdapha National Park (India, about 50%) and Manas National Park (India, about 40%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Scarlet Minivet is recorded against all the birds logged in Sepilok (120 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
