Cricket Longtail
Spiloptila clamans
Tiny warbler with an extremely long, strongly-patterned tail. Note blackish wing coverts with white tips, gray on the back of the neck, and a warm brown back. Males have a dark crown over a pale eyebrow. Roves in small family groups in open acacia savanna, foraging in bushes and often on the ground while continuously moving tail. Song a rapid, insectlike high-pitched repeating whistle. Contact call a high-pitched repeating note "pi, pi, pi…"
Identification
The cricket warbler is a small, perky warbler with a long tail made up of twelve grey, black and white tipped feathers with the feathers getting longer from the outside to the centre, creating a graduated tail. It is pale buffy rufous on the upperparts, with black streaks on the crown and black tips to the primaries and upper wing coverts, a pale yellow rump, a white supercilium and whitish cream underparts. The male has a greyer cast across the nape. 9–10 cm in length.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Spiloptila clamans
- Authority
- (Cretzschmar, 1826)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Columbidae
- Genus
- Spiloptila
Range and habitat
The cricket warbler occurs in the Sahel Zone from southern Mauritania and northern Senegal east to South Sudan and northern Eritrea. They have recently been found breeding in the Western Sahara at Oued Jenna near Assouerd. The cricket warbler breeds in thorn scrub, especially acacia scrub, it even extends into true desert so long as there is sufficient vegetation and into savanna with broad-leafed trees but avoids grassy plains or dense bush.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Palau Fantail
Rhipidura lepida
Small, with a long, often fanned tail. Mostly pale orange-red with a gleaming white throat and a black chest with gray sides. Note the small black eye mask. Mostly resident in forest, but sometimes forages in open scrub. Common vocalization is a soft whistle or raspy “me-EE-ow.”
Hardhead
Aythya australis
Chocolate brown diving duck with white rump and large white panels in the wings. Male has white eyes. Female is slightly paler with dusky eyes. Similar to Musk and Blue-billed Ducks, but Hardhead sits higher in the water, has a white patch on the rump, and lacks a spiky tail.
Dusky Pigeon
Patagioenas goodsoni
This pigeon is found in the Choco region of western Colombia and Ecuador. It is fairly dull grayish-brown overall, especially gray on the head and breast with a warmer reddish tone on the nape. Compare with Ruddy Pigeon, which is typically brighter reddish on the head and breast. Most easily distinguished by voice. Dusky sings a three-note song, with a higher, longer first note followed by two shorter clipped notes: “WHOOO, whoop, whoop!” Also gives a growling call similar to other pigeons. Occurs in lowlands and foothills up to around 1,500 m. Can be fairly common, especially by voice, but sometimes is difficult to spot in the canopy.
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