Western Bluebill - BirdForum Opus

Male, subspecies haematina
Photo © by scottishdude
The Gambia, 24 March 2010

Spermophaga haematina

Identification

15 cm (6 in)
Male

Glossy black head and upperparts
Red underparts
Black lower belly and undertail-coverts

Female

Dusky-red forehead and face
Brownish black upperparts and tail
Red rump and underparts
Black and white spotted lower belly to undertail-coverts

Distribution

Female, subspecies haematina
Photo © by kamst139
Casamance, Senegal, February 2017

Africa: Western Africa: found in Senegambia, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Spermophaga haematina has three subspecies:^[1]

S. h. haematina

Senegambia to southern Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana

S. h. togoensis

Togo to south-western Nigeria

S. h. pustulata

South-eastern Nigeria to Central African Republic, Congo, central DRC and north-western Angola

Habitat

Forests, including gallery forest, forest edges and clearings. Other woodland and gardens.

Behaviour

Diet

Their main diet consists of berries, grass seeds, rice and palm oil fruit husks as well as some insects such as termites, aphids and spiders.

Breeding

They construct a large ball with a side entrance from moss, ferns, leaves and dry grass and hide it in a bush about 1-2 m off the ground. Their clutch contains 2-6 eggs which are incubated for 14-16 days. They fledge after 21-22 days but remain with the adults for a further 5-6 weeks.

References

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Payne, R. B. (2020). Western Bluebill (Spermophaga haematina), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.wesblu1.01

List of references

Recommended Citation

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Western Bluebill. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 27 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Western_Bluebill

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