Long-billed Crombec
Sylvietta rufescens
A tiny, rotund, virtually tailless warbler with buff-orange underparts, gray-brown upperparts, and a dark eye-stripe that forms a buffy eyebrow. Pairs often join mixed-species flocks actively hopping along branches, occasionally hanging like mini-nuthatches, searching for invertebrates, and occasionally eating plant matter. Occupies broadleaf woodland, savanna, and arid scrub, where it is often detected by its quiet but distinctive faltering “chree-chirrit, chree-chirrit, chree-chirrit” song. The Red-capped Crombec has paler light gray upperparts and lacks the Cape Crombec’s eye-stripe, giving it a more open tawny face.
Identification
The long-billed crombec is a small, nearly tailless bird 12 cm long and weighing around 16 g. Its upperparts are brownish grey-brown, and there is a pale grey supercilium, separated from the whitish throat by a dark eye stripe. The whitish breast shades into the buff belly. The long slightly curved bill is blackish.<p>The sexes are similar, and the juvenile resembles the adult. The call is a variable series of trilled notes including trreee-rriiit trreee-rriiit and a harsh pttt.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Sylvietta rufescens
- Authority
- (Vieillot, 1817)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Macrosphenidae
- Genus
- Sylvietta
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The long-billed crombec's nest is a large, hanging bag of grasses, spider webs, and plant fibres, which is attached to the lower limbs of a tree, often an Acacia. The one to three white eggs are incubated for two weeks to hatching, and the chicks are fed by both parents for another two weeks to fledging. This territorial species is monogamous, pairing for life.<p>This bird is usually seen alone, in pairs, or in family groups as it forages methodically from the bottom to the top of bushes and trees for insects and grass seeds. It will join mixed-species feeding flocks.<p>It moves between trees with a bouncy flight.
Conservation
This common species has a large range, with an estimated extent of 4,500,000 km². The population size is believed to be large, and the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e. declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as least concern.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Royal Cinclodes
Cinclodes aricomae
Medium-sized dark brown bird with a restricted range. Chunky and relatively long-tailed, with a reddish wing contrasting with its dark chocolate brown body, and a white eyebrow and cheek stripe. Found in humid groves of Polylepis trees, where it forages on or near the ground, looking around mossy rocks and roots for its prey. Lacks the small white or cream patch on wing present in similar cinclodes species. Also note the darker brown body and thicker bill than other cinclodes in range.
Sabah Partridge
Tropicoperdix graydoni
Intricately-patterned partridge of tropical lowland rainforest. Uncommon and declining throughout its range. Brown with buff scaling, rusty bib, stippled black-and-white head pattern, and a pale throat. Forages in small flocks on the forest floor. Found at lower altitudes than other partridges in range and distinguished by pale ear patch and lack of rufous on the head. Song, often given as a duet, consists of loud, tremulous whistles followed by a series of up and down notes “weep! churrrrr…!”.
Ornate Fruit-Dove
Ptilinopus ornatus
A fruit dove primarily of foothill forest but wanders to lowland and montane forest. Two very different races. Dark red-capped race from the Bird’s Head of New Guinea, and yellow-green capped further east. Note the white band from the bill around the back of the neck and clay-colored chest. Similar to Pink-spotted Dove, but Ornate Fruit-Dove has a dark red wedge on the shoulder and yellow tip to the tail. Voice a slow but accelerating series of rising “woop” notes, similar to that of Pink-spotted but not as fast.
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