Red-bellied Paradise Flycatcher
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| Terpsiphone rufiventer (Swainson, 1837) |
The Red-bellied Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone rufiventer), also known as the Black-headed Paradise Flycatcher, is a medium-sized passerine bird. It was previously classified with the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae, but the paradise flycatchers, monarch flycatchers and Australasian fantails are now normally grouped with the drongos in the family Dicruridae, which has most of its members in Australasia and tropical southern Asia.
However, the Red-bellied 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.
The adult male Red-bellied Flycatcher is about 17 cm long, but the long tail streamers nearly double this. 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 zweetcall. 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.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2006). Terpsiphone rufiventer. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006.
- Birds of The Gambia by Barlow, Wacher and Disley, ISBN 1-873403-32-1
