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- Grande Comore Brush-Warbler
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- Grande Comore Brush-Warbler
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- Grande Comore Brush-Warbler
- Grande Comore Brush-Warbler
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- Grande Comore Brush-Warbler

Grande Comore Brush-Warbler Nesillas brevicaudata Scientific name definitions

David Pearson
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated January 1, 2006

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Originally Appeared in

HBW Alive

Field Identification

15–16 cm; 14–19 g. A warmly tinged brush-warbler with graduated tail of twelve feathers. Top of head is dark olive-brown, lores to cheek and ear-coverts greyer brown, with narrow buffish supercilium, pale crescent below eye; upperparts and upperwing-coverts warm olive-brown, more rufous on rump and uppertail-coverts; flight feathers and tail feathers dark brown with light olive-brown edges; buffy brown below, paler on chin and throat, warmer brown on flanks and undertail-coverts, soft greyish-brown streaks from chin to upper breast; iris dark brown; bill blackish above, pale below; legs dark brownish-grey. Differs from N. typica in having much shorter tail. Sexes alike. Juvenile is duller than adult.

Systematics History

Sometimes considered a race of N. typica but differs vocally, and has generally been treated as a full species; molecular data confirm this, and show N. mariae to be its closest relative (1). Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

Grand Comoro (Ngazidja), in Comoro Is.

Habitat

Middle levels of evergreen forest, forest clearings and lower part of Philippia heath zone; 500–2300 m.

Movement

Sedentary.

Diet and Foraging

Tiny invertebrates, including beetles (Coleoptera), bugs (Hemiptera), flies (Diptera) and grasshoppers (Orthoptera). Forages in twos and threes among shrubs and subcanopy, mainly at 3–10 m from ground, but lower down in heath zone; hops, with tail held cocked, among mossy branches and trunks, sometimes leaf-gleaning. Often joins mixed-species parties.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Gives shrill chatter, “ch-r-r-r ch-r-r-r- ch-r-r-r”, much less staccato than that of N. typica (of nominate race); call a short, low-pitched nasal “peut” like that of a sparrow (Passer), or, when agitated, a loud “chik-puyk”, and rapid scolding alarm.

Breeding

Birds in breeding condition in Aug–Sept. Nest sited just above ground. No further information.

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife LC Least Concern
Not globally threatened. Restricted-range species: present in Comoro Islands EBA. Confined to Grand Comoro, the largest of the Comoros, where common. No obvious threats identified.
Distribution of the Grande Comore Brush-Warbler - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Grande Comore Brush-Warbler

eBird and Macaulay Library

Recommended Citation

Pearson, D. (2020). Grande Comore Brush-Warbler (Nesillas brevicaudata), 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.gcbwar1.01
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