Spectacled Flowerpecker Dicaeum dayakorum Scientific name definitions

The discovery of a remarkable, only slightly sexually dimorphic, all gray-and-white flowerpecker in the tall lowland dipterocarp forests of Borneo was arguably one of the most exciting ornithological events during the first decade of the 21st century. Its plumage is highly distinctive, and quite unlike any other Dicaeum flowerpecker. That it remained unknown to Western science for so long is perhaps a function of its perceived rarity (there are observations from just six, widely spaced, localities) or the species’ canopy-dwelling habits (it was first spotted from a canopy platform), or both. To date, there are records, some of them photo-documented, from Sabah, Sarawak (both states in Malaysia), Brunei, and Kalimantan (Indonesia), but just one specimen (an adult female) has been collected, and our knowledge of the Spectacled Flowerpecker’s ecology and life history is still almost zero.