himalayan cutia Cutia nipalensis

A beautiful, stocky inhabitant of high-elevation broadleaf and mixed forests. Looks like a babbler, but much more closely related to laughingthrushes. Male has a black mask, blue-gray crown, white throat, barred sides, and bright rufous back. Female is paler, with a brown face and a more yellowish back lined with black streaks. Forages at middle and upper levels, often in small groups, picking invertebrates from leaf clusters, ferns and orchids, and mossy crevices of trunks and branches. Listen for its loud song, an extended series of high-pitched, piercing “chee!” notes.