Black-billed Sicklebill
Drepanornis albertisi
A large, long-billed bird of mid-montane forest. Brown upperparts and grayish, facial skin behind the eye. Note the curved, black bill. Male has a black throat and a small, hornlike tuft in front of each eye with blue-green iridescence. Female has pale underparts with dark scaling. Uses its distinctive bill to probe for insects but also takes fruit. Female similar to female Black and Brown Sicklebills, but usually occurs at lower elevations, has a shorter tail and lacks the black throat. Song, a series of identical high notes, slurred into a loose trill which increases in volume.
Identification
The black-billed sicklebill is medium-sized, about 35 cm long, brown. The male has a bare maroon-grey skin around its eye, buff-colored tail, dark-brown iris, yellow mouth and black sickle-like bill. It is adorned with dark, horn-like forecrown feathers, an erectile fan-like bronze neck plumes and elongated purple-tipped flank plumes. The unadorned brown female is smaller, with bill longer than male and dark-barred below.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Drepanornis albertisi
- Authority
- (Sclater, PL, 1873)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Paradisaeidae
- Genus
- Drepanornis
Range and habitat
The black-billed sicklebill is found in mountainous areas with a scattered range of presence across western, central and eastern New Guinea. The species is mostly distributed in tropical montane forests at altitudes of 1100 to 1900 m above sea level. It overlaps with Drepanornis brujini only barely, but no hybridization has ever been recorded, though it is possible to occur.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
Widespread throughout its large range, the black-billed sicklebill is evaluated as being of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Other Birds
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Caribbean Martin
Progne dominicensis
A graceful aerial feeder found over a wide variety of open habitats, especially near water, including marshes and towns. Often seen on exposed perches including power and telephone lines in villages. Commonly found in flocks of up to twenty birds, sometimes mixing with other swallows and martins. Note the male’s diagnostic glossy purple-blue plumage and snow-white belly. Females and immatures are similarly patterned, but have brown mixed with the blue and are probably not safely separable from Cuban Martin. Female and immature Purple Martins are very similar, but they often have a scaly breast and finely streaked belly, with less contrast between belly and chest. Notably, Cuban and Purple Martins are not present in this species’ range from March to September. Calls include a harsh “churr,” a buzzy “zwick-zwick,” and a musical buzzy burbling.
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