Whiskered bird
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Whiskered bird ( Gymnobucco peli ) |
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| Gymnobucco peli | ||||||||||
| Hartlaub , 1857 |
The bristle- bearded bird ( Gymnobucco peli ), also known as the pel-bearded bird, is a species of the African bearded bird . The inconspicuous brown feathered species occurs in West Africa on both sides of the equator. No subspecies are distinguished. The IUCN classifies the whiskered bird as not endangered.
Appearance
The bristle-beard bird reaches a wing length between 7.7 and 8.9 centimeters. The beak is between 1.8 and 2.2 inches long. The tail is short and reaches a length between 4.1 and 4.7 centimeters. Females achieve similar body dimensions. There is no noticeable sexual dimorphism .
Males and females have a brown back of the head and neck and a brown throat. The face is largely featherless and black, it only has a few individual, hair-like black feathers with light shafts. There are tufts of reddish-brown bristles at the base of the beak. The top of the body is brown. The control springs are also brown. The underside of the body is just as brown from the breast to the coverts of the tail, the breast is a little darker than the rest of the underside of the body. The beak is matt yellowish to yellow-brown, the upper beak and the tip of the beak are somewhat lighter in many individuals. The eyes are brown to reddish brown. The legs and feet are brown or dark gray-brown. Young birds are similar to adult birds, but their bristle-like feathers at the base of their beak are slightly darker and the face is slightly more feathered.
The bristle- beard bird is often associated with the bald-headed bird and occasionally with the black-bearded bird. The whiskered bird differs from these two species by its lighter bristles at the base of its beak. It also lacks the gray neck that is characteristic of the bearded bird. According to current knowledge, the distribution areas of the bristle-whiskered bird and the closely related soot-whiskered bird do not overlap. The two types are very similar. The whiskered bird differs from this species by its lighter plumage and lighter beak.
Distribution area
The range of the whiskered bird extends from the south of the Ivory Coast over the south of Ghana to Nigeria and Cameroon, Gabon, the west of the DR Congo to the north of Angola. Its habitat are forests in the lowlands, but it occurs up to an altitude of 1100 meters. It is less common and a more pronounced forest dweller than the bald-whiskered bird.
Way of life
The way of life of the whiskered bird has so far only been very inadequately investigated. He looks for food in the foliage of fruit-bearing trees and often hangs upside down on the branches like a tit. He eats fruits, nectar and probably also insects. It nests and rests in tree hollows near bald-whiskered and black-whiskered birds. To date, no whiskered bird breeding burrows have been found that were not in the vicinity of these two species. He makes his caves himself. In Gabon it breeds from October to April, in the drier regions of Cameroon the breeding season extends over an even longer period. In Ghana it breeds at least in November and December. Otherwise nothing is known about the breeding biology of this species.
supporting documents
literature
- Lester L. Short, Jennifer FM Horne: Toucans, Barbets and Honeyguides - Ramphastidae, Capitonidae and Indicatoridae. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001, ISBN 0-19-854666-1 .
Individual evidence
Web link
- Gymnobucco peli inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2014.