Picumne roux

Identification

The rufous piculet is a very small bird with short wings and an almost non-existent tail, ranging in length from 8 to 10 cm (3 to 4 in). The upper parts are generally green tinted with bronze, and the underparts rufous, orange or cinnamon, with paler flanks. The mantle and back are olive, the wings are brownish above, and the underwings are buff. The stumpy tail is blackish above, edged with olive. The sexes are different; the male has a yellow or golden patch on the forehead whereas the female has a bronze patch. They also differ in that the female has a larger beak. The upper mandible in both sexes is blackish and the lower mandible yellowish. The iris is reddish and there is a pinkish or purplish ring of bare skin around the eye. The legs and feet are yellowish or orange, and this piculet has just three toes on each foot, (four being normal in the woodpecker family). The juvenile is rather more grey.

Taxonomie

Nom scientifique

Sasia abnormis

Autorité

(Temminck, 1825)

Ordre

Piciformes

Famille

Cettiidae

Genre

Sasia

Répartition et habitat

The rufous piculet is native to tropical southeastern Asia. Its range extends from southern Myanmar, through Thailand and the Malay Peninsula to the Greater Sunda Islands and Borneo. It is a resident and sedentary species, generally restricted to the lowlands and hills, but at altitudes of up to about 1,600 m (5,200 ft) in Borneo. Its typical habitat is dense humid secondary forests with tangled undergrowth, vines, creepers, bamboos and dead and rotting trees, often near streams.

Migration

Resident species

Comportement

The rufous piculet is an active bird moving singly or in small groups through the lowest storeys of the forest, usually not above 5 m (16 ft) from the ground. It forages on trunks and dead branches, on vines, in bushes, among bamboos and in tall grasses. It gleans scrupulously, probing into holes and pulling out insects with its long tongue. It sometimes works its way up a trunk in a crosswise fashion, making little flights so as to turn to face the other way, the several members of a group often working in synchrony. The diet consists of ants, their larvae, termites, small beetles, spiders and other small invertebrates.<p>In Borneo the breeding season is in February while in Malaysia, nestlings have been found in May and June. Sometimes the nest is in a hole in a dead branch, and at other times it may be in bamboo.

Conservation

Tendance de la population

stable