White-headed mousebird

Last updated

White-headed mousebird
White-headed Mousebird - Samburu NH8O5520.jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Coliiformes
Family: Coliidae
Genus: Colius
Species:
C. leucocephalus
Binomial name
Colius leucocephalus
Reichenow, 1879

The white-headed mousebird (Colius leucocephalus) is a bird belonging to the mousebird family, Coliidae. It is found only in east Africa where it occurs in southern Somalia and parts of Kenya with its range just extending into southern Ethiopia and northern Tanzania. It inhabits arid bushland up to 1,400 metres above sea-level.

It is 32 cm long with the long, graduated tail accounting for over half of this. The plumage is mainly greyish with black and white barring on the back, neck and breast. It has a white crest, crown and cheeks. There is a white stripe down the back which becomes visible when the bird flies. Around the eye is a patch of dark, bare skin. The bill is bluish-white above and buff below. In juvenile birds, the throat and breast are buff. The northern subspecies (C. l. turneri) is darker than the southern form (C. l. leucocephalus).

The contact call is a scratchy chattering and the bird also has a descending song.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue-naped mousebird</span> Species of bird

The blue-naped mousebird, also formerly called the blue-naped coly is a species of bird found in the wild in the drier regions of East Africa. It is one of the remaining six species of Mousebirds. The term “mousebird” comes from its habit of running along branches in a way that resembles the scurrying of a mouse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speckled mousebird</span> Species of bird

The speckled mousebird is the largest species of mousebird, as well as one of the most common. It is found throughout most of Central, Eastern and Southern Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-backed mousebird</span> Species of bird

The white-backed mousebird is a large species of mousebird. It is distributed in western and central regions of southern Africa from Namibia and southern Botswana eastwards to Central Transvaal and the eastern Cape.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Streaky-headed seedeater</span> Species of bird

The streaky-headed seedeater or streaky-headed canary is a small passerine bird in the finch family. It is an unobtrusive but widespread species in suitable habitats of southern Africa. Its presence in an area is revealed foremost by its callnotes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape robin-chat</span> Species of bird

The Cape robin-chat is a small passerine bird of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It has a disjunct range from South Sudan to South Africa. The locally familiar and confiding species has colonized and benefited from a range of man-altered habitats, including city suburbs and farmstead woodlots. It is an accomplished songster like other robin-chats, but is rather less colourful than most, and frequents either drier settings or higher altitudes. It forages in the proximity of cover, in the open or in fairly well-lit environments. Its distribution resembles that of the karoo–olive complex of thrushes, but it prefers the bracken-briar fringes of Afromontane forest, and does not enter far into forest proper. It is altitudinally segregated from the red-capped robin-chat, and is less of a skulker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mangrove kingfisher</span> Species of bird

The mangrove kingfisher is a kingfisher in the genus Halcyon. It is similar in appearance to the woodland kingfisher. It is found along the eastern coastline of Sub-Saharan Africa, living in woodland, along rivers, and in estuaries and mangrove. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as being of least concern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African pipit</span> Species of bird

The African pipit is a fairly small passerine bird belonging to the pipit genus Anthus in the family Motacillidae. It is also known as the grassveld pipit or grassland pipit. It was formerly lumped together with the Richard's, Australasian, mountain and paddyfield pipits in a single species, Richard's pipit, but is now often treated as a species in its own right.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taita fiscal</span> Species of bird

The Taita fiscal or Teita fiscal is a member of the shrike family found in east Africa from southeastern South Sudan, southern Ethiopia, and western Somalia to northeastern Tanzania. Its habitat is dry open thornbush and acacia and other dry open woodland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rufous-naped lark</span> Species of bird

The rufous-naped lark or rufous-naped bush lark is a widespread and conspicuous species of lark in the lightly wooded grasslands, open savannas and farmlands of the Afrotropics. Males attract attention to themselves by a bold and often repeated wing-fluttering display from a prominent perch, which is accompanied by a melodious and far-carrying whistled phrase. This rudimentary display has been proposed as the precursor to the wing-clapping displays of other bush lark species. They have consistently rufous outer wings and a short erectile crest, but the remaining plumage hues and markings are individually and geographically variable. It has a straight lower, and longish, curved upper mandible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Somali bee-eater</span> Species of bird

The Somali bee-eater is a species of bird in the family Meropidae. It is found in Ethiopia, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Tanzania. This is a small bee-eater that prefers arid country and desert areas where it may be locally common. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern", postulating that clearing of woodland and forest is creating new suitable habitat for the bird and that its population trend may therefore be rising.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-bellied bustard</span> Species of bird

The black-bellied bustard, also known as the black-bellied korhaan, is an African ground-dwelling bird in the bustard family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-bellied bustard</span> Species of bird

The white-bellied bustard or white-bellied korhaan is an African species of bustard. It is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa in grassland and open woodland habitats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-browed robin-chat</span> Species of bird

The white-browed robin-chat, also known as Heuglin's robin, is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. Found in east, central and southern Africa, its natural habitats include riverine forest and thickets, and it is also found near humans. The IUCN classifies it as a least-concern species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-browed scrub robin</span> Species of bird

The white-browed scrub robin, also known as the red-backed scrub-robin, is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is native to sub-Saharan Africa, especially East and southern Africa. Within range, its Turdus-like song is one of the often-heard sounds of the bush. The flitting of the tail is characteristic of this species, but also of some near relatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baglafecht weaver</span> Species of bird

The baglafecht weaver is a species of weaver bird from the family Ploceidae which is found in eastern and central Africa. There are several disjunct populations with distinguishable plumage patterns. Only some races display a discrete non-breeding plumage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African broadbill</span> Species of bird

The African broadbill, also known as the black-capped broadbill or Delacour's broadbill is a species of bird in the sub-oscine family Calyptomenidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-fronted bushshrike</span> Species of bird

The black-fronted bushshrike is a passerine bird of the bushshrike family, Malaconotidae. It inhabits forests mainly in East Africa. It forms a superspecies with the many-colored bushshrike and the two are sometimes considered to be a single species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heuglin's wheatear</span> Species of bird

Heuglin's wheatear is a small passerine bird in the wheatear genus Oenanthe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abyssinian wheatear</span> Species of bird

The Abyssinian wheatear, or Abyssinian black wheatear, is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found from Ethiopia to southern Kenya and northeastern Tanzania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black bishop</span> Species of bird

The black bishop is a species of passerine bird in the family Ploceidae native to Africa south of the Sahara. Three subspecies are recognised.

References

  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Colius leucocephalus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T22683780A93000938. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22683780A93000938.en . Retrieved 11 November 2021.