Burmese Nuthatch Sitta neglecta Scientific name definitions

13 cm. A medium-small nuthatch with slender bill, typical in shape and behaviour. Male has crown and upperparts , including lesser and median upperwing-coverts and tertials, medium blue-grey; extreme base of bill and lores blackish, extending into black eyestripe  ; greater secondary coverts and primary coverts and alula dark grey, fringed and tipped blue-grey, flight-feathers dark grey-brown, secondaries and inner primaries broadly fringed blue-grey; central tail feathers blue-grey, others blackish-grey with broad dull blue-grey fringe on outer web and tip of inner web (widest on outermost rectrix), outer two feather pairs with off-white subterminal spot on inner web, T4 with small whitish tip on inner web; chin, cheek and fore ear-coverts white, feathers very faintly tipped darker; rear ear-coverts, side of neck and underparts brownish-orange, slightly darker on flanks and lower belly, throat  paler than breast , often pale orange-buff; undertail-coverts blackish-grey, grading to dark grey, with broad whitish subterminal band and fine chestnut fringe (appear white with very fine chestnut scallops); thigh feathers grey with blue-grey subterminal band and chestnut tip; axillaries blue-grey, tipped chestnut; iris brown; bill bluish, black tip; legs dark blue-grey. Differs from similar S. cinnamoventris in having bill more slender and slightly shorter, black eyestripe rather shorter with extension onto side of mantle much reduced, chestnut scallops on undertail-coverts finer, underparts on average paler and more orange, with lower belly and flanks slightly darker and throat slightly paler (whitish chinstrap less contrasting); from S. nagaensis mainly by more uniformly darker underparts, without contrastingly darker flanks. Female is as male, but paler, cinnamon to pale orange-drab, below, especially throat and upper breast. Juvenile often has combination of diffuse paler centres, faint darker fringes and rufous subterminal marks on feathers of crown to mantle and scapulars, faint darker barring on cheek and chin, and noticeably paler and more washed-out underparts than adult, young male pale buffy orange below, female pale greyish with buff tinge.

Myanmar S from Bhamo Hills (S in W to at least Mt Victoria and in E to Mt Mulayit), N & W Thailand (S in W to Kanchanaburi), C & S Laos lowlands (S at least from Vientiane), Cambodia and S Vietnam (C Annam).

Food insects  . Found singly, in pairs or in loose family parties; frequently joins mixed-species foraging flocks. Usually forages in upper half of trees, on trunk and smaller branches.

Calls include loud, screechy "chreet-chreet" and hard, explosive rattled "sri'i'i'i'i'i'i'i". Song a loud, full, mellow, slightly wavering trill, varying in speed and duration, "chi-wi-wi-wi" or "chi-wi-wi-wi-wi-wi-wi", similar to slow song of S. cinnamoventris.