• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Sao Tome Prinia - BirdForum Opus

Page Discussion
View source History
Prinia molleri

Identification

13 cm. A rather plain prinia with a rufous head.

  • Chestnut face and rufous-brown crown, grey on nape
  • Grey upperparts lightly washed olive
  • Dark brown greater upperwing-coverts with white margins
  • Blackish-brown flight-feathers
  • Long, strongly graduated tail with blackish central feathers, other feathers grey with blackish subterminal band and whitish tip
  • Creamy white underparts with grey sides and flanks and rufous thighs
  • Pale grey eye

Females are duller than males and have more strongly olive-washed upperparts.
Juveniles have washed rufous upperparts, throat and breast.

Distribution

Endemic to Sao Tomé in the Gulf of Guinea, Africa.
A restricted-range species, abundant in its small range.

Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species.

Habitat

Found in undergrowth and understorey vegetation in a wide range of habitats and at all elevations. Scarced in undisturbed forest.

Behaviour

Usually seen in pairs, often in groups of about 5 to 6 birds.

Diet

Feeds mainly on insects. Takes also some vegetable matter. Forages by gleaning from leaves on creepers and lianas. Sometimes on the ground.

Breeding

Breeding season mainly October to December, also August to March. A solitary, territorial species, probably monogamous. The nest is a woven oval of fine grass and other plant fibres. It's built 1-3 m above the ground under a fern frond, in a mass of twigs at the end of a branch or in plants hanging down a bank. Lays 1-2 eggs.

Movements

Presumably a resident species.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2013. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.8., with updates to August 2013. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved July 2014)

Recommended Citation

External Links

Retrieved from ‘https://www.birdforum.net/wiki/index.php?title=Sao_Tome_Prinia&oldid=202244’
Back
Top