White-browed Piculet

The white-browed piculet (Sasia ochracea) is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitats are temperate forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

This small piculet has olive-green upper parts tinged with chestnut and grows to a length of up to 10 cm. The under parts are cinnamon or rufous, sometimes yellowish on the flanks. The stubby tail is blackish. The crown is green, and there is a white streak above and immediately behind the eye, the latter being surrounded by a ring of bare pinkish or reddish skin. Males have a small golden-yellow patch on the forehead which females lack. Juveniles are duller in colour than adults, greener above and greyer beneath. The beak is grey, the iris is red and the legs are yellow or orange, the feet having just three toes, (four being the norm in the woodpecker family). In southern Myanmar and southeastern Thailand, where their ranges overlap, the white-browed piculet can be confused with the very similar rufous piculet (Sasia abnormis), but differs in the white streak above the eye and the darker beak.