Identification
Dull brown bulbul; paler below than above. Thin orangish eyering around the bright red eye is diagnostic, but not always easy to see. Very similar in appearance to slightly larger Red-eyed Bulbul, as well as to the red-eyed Bornean form of Cream-vented Bulbul; Spectacled is best separated by its combination of stronger contrast of the gray-washed head and breast with the rufous-brown wings and rump. Throat coloration of Spectacled is intermediate between the starkly pale throat of Cream-vented and the brown-suffused throat of Red-eyed, and its bill appears smaller and sharper than in the former two species. Song is a jumble of cricket-like chirping and harsh scratchy notes. Calls are a bright and bubbly series of notes--“pi-di-pi-pi-di-di”--sometimes with a descending meow at the end. Inhabits lowland and foothill forests, usually found in more mature growth than Cream-vented and Red-eyed Bulbuls.