Red-bellied paradise flycatcher
| Red-bellied paradise flycatcher | |
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| Red-bellied paradise flycatcher | |
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| Species: | T. rufiventer
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| Binomial name | |
| Terpsiphone rufiventer (Swainson, 1837)
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The red-bellied paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone rufiventer), also known as the black-headed paradise flycatcher, is a medium-sized passerine bird native to West Africa. The male bird is about 17 cm (7 in) long and has a black head, a mainly chestnut body, and a tail with streamers nearly twice as long as the body. The colouring is somewhat variable across the bird's range. Both females and juveniles lack the tail streamers and are a duller brown colour. it is closely related to the African paradise flycatcher, and the two can hybridise.
Subspecies
Ten subspecies are recognized:[2]
- T. r. rufiventer - (Swainson, 1837): Found in Senegal, Gambia and western Guinea
- T. r. nigriceps - (Hartlaub, 1855): Found from Sierra Leone and Guinea to Togo and south-western Benin
- T. r. fagani - (Bannerman, 1921): Found in Benin and south-western Nigeria
- T. r. tricolor - (Fraser, 1843): Found on Bioko (Gulf of Guinea)
- T. r. neumanni - Stresemann, 1924: Found from south-eastern Nigeria to northern Angola
- T. r. schubotzi - (Reichenow, 1911): Found in south-eastern Cameroon and south-western Central African Republic
- T. r. mayombe - (Chapin, 1932): Found in Congo and western Democratic Republic of Congo
- T. r. somereni - Chapin, 1948: Found in western and southern Uganda
- T. r. emini - Reichenow, 1893: Found in south-eastern Uganda, western Kenya and north-western Tanzania
- T. r. ignea - (Reichenow, 1901): Found in eastern Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, north-eastern Angola and north-western Zambia
Before 2009, the Annobón paradise flycatcher was classified as a subspecies (T. r. smithii) of the Red-bellied paradise flycatcher.[3]
Description
The adult male of this species is about 17 cm long, but the long tail streamers nearly double the birds length. It has a black head, and the rest of the plumage is chestnut, other than a prominent black wingbar. The female is duller and lacks the tail streamers. Young birds are plain brown.
The males show considerable variation in plumage in some areas. There is a morph of this species in which the male has the chestnut parts of the plumage replaced by white, and some races have black tail streamers.
The red-bellied paradise flycatcher is a noisy bird with a sharp zweet call. It has short legs and sits very upright whilst perched prominently, like a shrike. It is insectivorous, often hunting by flycatching.
The black-bellied African paradise flycatcher, Terpsiphone viridis, is closely related to this species, and hybrids occur with the underparts a mixture of black and red.
Distribution and habitat
The red-bellied paradise flycatcher is a common resident breeder in tropical western Africa south of the Sahara Desert. This species is usually found in thick forests and other well-wooded habitats. Two eggs are laid in a tiny cup nest in a tree.
References
- ^ Template:IUCN
- ^ "IOC World Bird List 6.3". IOC World Bird List Datasets. doi:10.14344/ioc.ml.6.3.
- ^ "Species Version 2 « IOC World Bird List". www.worldbirdnames.org. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
- Birds of The Gambia by Barlow, Wacher and Disley, ISBN 1-873403-32-1