Continuing with the tiny beauties of Himalayas - here is another one - the Black-faced warbler. The bird forms part of the bush warblers (Scotocercidae) and at only 10 cm - it is a perfect contender for the tiny bundle of joy for the birdwatchers. These birds are small, and being warblers - they hop around in the thickest of the bush and that does not make the job any easier for us to see and appreciate these birds. If you have not seen the Yellow-bellied fantail earlier - I will not blame you to give them a glance and look the other way thinking that you have spotted on of the fantails. I am by no means suggesting that their characteristics are similar - after all the fantail sits on a branch, sallies for flies and insects and spreads the fan off and on - but what would seem to confuse you is the same face pattern with a black mask on the face as it flirts in and out of the bush.
Though this bird - like a lot of endemics of Himalayas - reside from the east to west of the mountains - I saw this bird for the very first time a week back in Arunachal Pradesh. The problem sighting these birds are that the food is almost entirely invertebrates, foraging chiefly in the upper canopy, especially among creepers, to lesser extent in lower and middle canopy. So the sightings come only when the birds are forging the lower canopy of vegetation. It is also known to feed restlessly flicking wings and flashing tail - not unlike the Yellow-bellied Fantail I just spoke about a little earlier.
Surprisingly too many details of the breeding are not known about this bird and the information available on the Handbook of the Birds of the World live is based upon observation of two nests only.
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| A beautiful warbler... |
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| Keep a hand covering the body of this bird - this is the way it will probably flash in front of your eyes - mistaking for Yellow-bellied fantail is easy |
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| Talking about beauty and small bundle of joy... |
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| The range of this beautiful Himalayan bird... |
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