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- Grant's Bluebill
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- Grant's Bluebill
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Grant's Bluebill Spermophaga poliogenys Scientific name definitions

Robert B. Payne
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated June 19, 2013

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Originally Appeared in

HBW Alive

Field Identification

14 cm; 18·7-21·7 g. Male has front of head (back to central crown) and down to breast and flanks red, rump and uppertail-coverts red; rest of plumage glossy black, wing and tail black; iris brown, "eyelids" above and below eye pale blue; bill mostly red, with broad bluish area at base of both mandibles; legs greenish-brown. Female has head and back dark grey, back with bluish sheen, rump and uppertail-coverts red, wing and tail slate-grey, chin to upper breast red, lower breast, belly and undertail-coverts slate-grey with white spots; bare parts as for male. Juvenile is like female, but lacks red on throat and breast and white spotting on underparts, has reddish rump and uppertail-coverts, bluish or bluish-grey bill.

Systematics History

Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

Extreme SE Cameroon (Lobéké) (1), N Congo (Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park), DRCongo and W Uganda (Semliki Forest).

Habitat

Intact primary forest or secondary forest, swamp-forest, and thick undergrowth of Phrynium herbs; lowlands, to 1400 m.

Movement

Resident.

Diet and Foraging

Large, hard seeds; also insects, and spiders (Araneae). Forages at low levels, mainly in undergrowth. Forages singly and in pairs, sometimes in small groups.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Call a coarse "chip"; female call a soft "thac, thac", and melodious "tyee-dyeeu". Song of downslurred and upslurred whistles, terminal notes progressively higher in pitch, "seeu-sisi-su-swiswiswiswiswisisi".

Breeding

In NE DRCongo (Uele), juveniles in Mar and May–Jun and birds in breeding condition in Dec–Feb, May and Aug–Sept, suggesting protracted season; incubating in Jul in Uganda. One nest described, large, built from dried leaves and twigs, lined with fine grass, sited 2·5 m above ground in fork of small forest tree. Clutch 3 eggs; nestling undescribed, juvenile with regressed gape swellings had palate yellow with three black spots, dark band on tongue and dark crescent on lower mandible under tongue. No other information.

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife LC Least Concern
Not globally threatened. Rare in W of range and in extreme E of range; uncommon to locally fairly common elsewhere. Distribution patchy; possibly more widespread than currently known. Only relatively recently discovered in extreme SE Cameroon and N PRCongo.
Distribution of the Grant's Bluebill - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Grant's Bluebill

eBird and Macaulay Library

Recommended Citation

Payne, R. B. (2020). Grant's Bluebill (Spermophaga poliogenys), 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.grablu1.01
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