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Yellow-footed Honeyguide - BirdForum Opus

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Alternative names: Coe's Honeyguide, Eisentraut's Honeyguide

Photo by Wintibird
Bobiri, Ghana, May 2014
Melignomon eisentrauti

Identification

14.5 cm (5¾ in).

  • Yellowish-olive upperparts
  • Dark-tipped white outer tail
  • Grey-white underparts with green-yellow about breast and belly
  • White undertail-coverts
  • Yellow bill and legs, legs perhaps darker during breeding season

Sexes similar, juveniles are paler and yellower below.

Similar species

Has paler, whiter undertail-coverts contrasting with rest of underparts and yellow bill compared to Zenker's Honeyguide. Distinguished from Prodotiscus-Honeyguides by lack of white on side of rump, stronger and yellow bill and pale yellowish legs.

Distribution

Patchily distributed in Western Africa from southeast Sierra Leone to Liberia, Ivory Coast, southwest Ghana, south Nigeria to southwest Cameroon.
A poorly known species, described as recently as 1981. Rare in its range but possibly overlooked and more common than thought.

Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species.
Forms a superspecies with Zenker's Honeyguide.

Habitat

Primary evergreen lowland forest. Also found in drier, semi-deciduous areas and adjacent secondary forest.
Occurs from lowlands to 750 m.

Behaviour

Diet

Feeds on insects, fruits and seeds. Takes probably also beeswax.
Forages in the canopy down to middle level of forest. Sometimes in mixed-species flocks.

Breeding

Few information. Breeding season probably in March in Liberia, August and December in Cameroon. Sings from December to March. Hosts possibly woodpeckers.

Movements

Presumably a sedentary species.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2015. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2015, with updates to August 2015. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved June 2014)

Recommended Citation

External Links

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