Campephagidae

Scarlet Minivet

Pericrocotus speciosus

The 'raja-rani' of the canopy — scarlet males, golden females, always high in the treetops.

Seen atKunja ·Barechhina ·Ranikhet

Opens recordings on xeno-canto, the open bird-sound archive.

Stay in the The Minivet Room In the Lap of Nature

What the hills call it

Raja-Rani

/ raa·jaa raa·nee /राजा रानी

KumaoniBird

Scarlet Minivet — The 'raja-rani' of the canopy — scarlet males, golden females, always high in the treetops.

Field notes

Order: Passeriformes
Family: Campephagidae · Cuckooshrikes & minivets
Genus: Pericrocotus
Length: 20–22 cm
Weight: 20–25 g
At Kunja: Resident in the wooded hills — easiest to see autumn through spring
Conservation: Least Concern

How to know it

The male is unmistakable — deep scarlet below and on the wing-patches, jet black above and on the head; the female swaps the red for bright yellow. Slender and long-tailed, forever on the move.

What it eats

Insects, almost entirely — caught among the leaves or snatched in mid-air. Minivets drift through the treetops in loose, restless flocks, gleaning caterpillars, bugs and beetles.

Where & when to spot it

Look up. They keep to the very tops of the oaks, pines and roadside trees, flitting crown to crown — a flash of red or yellow against the sky, often heard on a thin, rolling call before it is seen.

Nesting & mating

Builds a tiny, neat cup of twigs, moss and cobweb, saddled onto a high horizontal branch and camouflaged with lichen. The female does most of the building and sits the two or three eggs while the male keeps close.

In the field

When we’ve seen it

Most often photographed in December, usually in the middle of the day. That makes winter a clear window to spot it around the homestay.

Spotting tip: head out in the middle of the day, walk slowly and stop often, and listen as much as you look — most of these birds call before they show themselves.

In the lens