Green Tinkerbird Pogoniulus simplex Scientific name definitions

c. 9 cm; 7–10·5 g. Tiny, active green barbet lacking distinctive head markings. Both sexes olive-green above, with yellow rump; wings blackish with much yellow; underparts light olive-yellow to greyish-yellow. Differs from similar P. leucomystax in less dark upperparts, lack of white malar line; from other Pogoniulus species in lack of patterning. Immature with yellow basal half of bill.

SE Kenya (S from Arabuko–Sokoke Forest) to NE Tanzania, and S disjunctly to S Malawi and S Mozambique (Sul do Save); also Zanzibar.

Occupies dense undergrowth in primary forest, also in forest thickets and edges, as in coral rag bush; occasionally occurs in mangroves; rarely enters Brachystegia woods adjacent to forest. Occurs from sea-level up to 300 m in N, but up to 900 m in Usambara Mts in NE Tanzania, there overlapping with P. leucomystax, which generally replaces it at higher elevations; but where P. leucomystax is absent, as E of Rift Valley in S Malawi, present species occurs at up to 1525 m.

Resident and sedentary.

Diet largely unknown, but apparently mainly fruits, especially mistletoe berries (Loranthus); also gleans for insects. Flits about rapidly; seems to move constantly, calling as it does so. Occasionally joins mixed-species foraging flocks.

Song of 2 types, a “pop-trill”  very like that of sympatric race fischeri of P. bilineatus but higher-pitched, faster and shorter, and a variable piping trill, slow to fast (20–30 notes per second); also grating “ggggg”, noisier long grating notes, and “prit” notes.

Aug–Sept in Kenya, also Dec–Mar in Tanzania, and Oct–Dec in Zanzibar. Very little known: 1 nest with young 2 m up in thin dead tree in Kenya; sings generally below 7 m, so nests probably low; another nest found in Mar in SE Mozambique was in hole of branch at c. 1.6 m above the ground, and surrounded by sticky mistletoe seeds (1 Wiesler, K. (2014). In search of the Green Tinkerbird – an eyewitness report. Ornithological Observations. 5: 294–300. Close ). Eggs and other details undescribed.

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Uncommon and local in N of range; no details available from elsewhere. Relatively poorly known species; other populations may remain to be discovered in C Mozambique; much research required in order to uncover details of its ecology and breeding behaviour.