Red-billed Leiothrix (Leiothrix lutea)

Red-billed Leiothrix. (Mall Road, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India)


Red-billed Leiothrix. (Hu Ping Shan, Hunan, China)


Red-billed Leiothrix. (Sattal, Nainital, Uttarakhand, India) © Sarwandeep Singh


Subtropical forests from the Himalayan foothills to eastern China; introduced elsewhere.

In the Himalayan foothills, local at middle elevations from northern Pakistan to northern Myanmar, then continuing east across Yunnan. Also south in the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya and mountains of Nagaland and northwestern Myanmar. Widely but locally distributed eastward across China, north to Shaanxi, Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu, and south into northern Vietnam.

Introduced populations are established in Japan on Kyushu, Shikoku, and southern and central Honshu, and Hawaii: on Oahu, Molokai, Maui, and the Big Island—formerly also on Kauai.

Several introduced populations appear to be growing in western Europe. The largest are in the northwestern foothills of the Pyrenees in northern Spain and southwestern France, and in the hills of southeastern France and northwestern Italy (approximately from Nice to Florence, and possibly expanding to the foothills of the Alps between Milan and Venice). Additional populations have emerged: in central Portugal (Coimbra to Setúbal); around Barcelona; and in parks north of Paris.