The Taiwan Yuhina formerly known as "Formosan Yuhina", is a small songbird endemic to the island of Taiwan

Endemic birds of Taiwan

This article is one of a series providing information about endemism among birds in the World's various zoogeographic zones. For an overview of this subject see Endemism in birds.-Endemic Bird Areas:...

. The Taiwan Yuhina is 13 cm in length with a deep brown

Brown

Brown is a color term, denoting a range of composite colors produced by a mixture of orange, red, rose, or yellow with black or gray. The term is from Old English brún, in origin for any dusky or dark shade of color....

 chestnut

Chestnut

Chestnut , some species called chinkapin or chinquapin, is a genus of eight or nine species of deciduous trees and shrubs in the beech family Fagaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.-Species:The chestnut belongs to the...

-coloured crest and a black

Black

Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...

 beard stripe descending from its beak

Beak

The beak, bill or rostrum is an external anatomical structure of birds which is used for eating and for grooming, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food, courtship and feeding young...

. The bird's back, wings and tail are olive brown, and its lower breast is lighter in colour. Agreeing with other typical yuhinas in habitus, its colouration pattern is rather uncommon among the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 (Cibois et al. 2002).

Like other yuhina

Yuhina

Yuhina is a genus of bird in the Timaliidae family.It contains the following species:* Striated Yuhina * Chestnut-crested Yuhina...

s, it is closely related to the white-eye

White-eye

White-eye can refer to:*White-eye , a large family of birds.*White-eye , a species of fish.*White-eye mutation, a mutation in Drosophila melanogaster linked to the X chromosome, found by reciprocal cross breeding experiments in 1906.*A lioness member of the Marsh Pride of lions that have featured...

s and if these were considered a distinct family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Zosteropidae, it would be placed there. Otherwise, it would belong together with the white-eyes into the Old World babbler family Timaliidae (Jønsson & Fjeldså 2006). The closest living relative of this species appears to be the Black-chinned Yuhina

Black-chinned Yuhina

The Black-chinned Yuhina is a bird species in the Old World babbler family Timaliidae. If the white-eyes are considered a distinct family , the genus Yuhina would need to be placed there....

, which occurs on the Asian mainland (Cibois et al. 2002).

This species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 is found in temperate

Temperate

In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold...

 forests, 1000–3300 m in altitude in its native habitat. It is gregarious, active and quite tame. It keeps to lower forest and often joins other species, especially tit

Titmouse

The tits, chickadees, and titmice constitute Paridae, a large family of small passerine birds which occur in the northern hemisphere and Africa...

s in mixed flocks

Mixed-species feeding flock

A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species, that join each other and move together while foraging...

. The flocks, while feeding, make a constant soft chatter. The call of the Taiwan Yuhina is a sound somewhat like twi-MI-chiu, which resembles the phrase "We MEET you". The Yuhina's diet consists of mainly nectar, berries, flowers and small insects. Taiwan Yuhina may sometimes be observed hanging upside down on cherry

Cherry

The cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy stone fruit. The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species, including especially cultivars of the wild cherry, Prunus avium....

 trees. These songbirds are particularly fond of the flowers of the Chinese tulip tree and the fruits of trees of the family Elaeagnaceae

Elaeagnaceae

Elaeagnaceae, the oleaster family, is a plant family of the order Rosales comprising small trees and shrubs, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, south into tropical Asia and Australia. The family has 45-50 species in three genera....

 and the genus Idesia

Idesia

Idesia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Salicaceae , comprising the single species Idesia polycarpa. It is native to eastern Asia in China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan....

(Salicaceae

Salicaceae

Salicaceae are a family of flowering plants. Recent genetic studies summarized by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group has greatly expanded the circumscription of the family to contain 55 genera....

).

Breeding season for the Taiwan Yuhina is from May to June.