Mouse-brown Sunbird Anthreptes gabonicus Scientific name definitions

10 cm. Dull sunbird, lacking metallic colours; bill broad at base, only slightly decurved. Male is mouse-brown above , with narrow white line across forehead , and white extending from lores to above and below eye (where conspicuous); hint of olive-green on outer half of uppertail-coverts and outer webs of flight-feathers, small white carpal patch; tail dark brown, broad white tips and greenish fringe on outer webs of all except central pair of feathers, outer edges of tips of outermost pair white on both surfaces; greyish-white below , white underwing-coverts and axillaries; iris red or brown; bill black; legs black, toes sometimes paler, more greyish. Distinguished from female of A. longuemarei by white around eye and grey underparts; from female of Cyanomitra cyanolaema (which also has white around eye) by shorter and straighter bill. Female is very like male, but has less prominent green on outer webs of remiges and rectrices. Juvenile is also similar, but more olive on wings and upper body, with lemon-yellow tinge below.

Senegambia E, discontinuously, to Nigeria and W Cameroon, S to Angola (Cabinda, Soyo area (1 Dean, W.R.J. and Le Maitre, D.C. (2008). The birds of the Soyo area, northwest Angola. Malimbus 30(1): 1–18. Close ) and mouth of R Kissama).

Coconut plantations, mangroves, farmland and gardens in coastal zones; also strays inland along riverine forest beside large rivers, e.g. reaches Madina-Diassa, in S Mali.

Occurrences beside rivers far inland in wet season suggest seasonal movements.

Few data. Hunts insects in trees and lianas, often close to water, using behaviour like that of a sylviid warbler. Common visitor to Hibiscus flowers in coastal gardens of S Cameroon, but not certain whether nectar or insects were taken.

Song consists of sequence of twitters, e.g. “tser-tser-tsew-tsi-tsi-tsi-tsi-tsi-tsi-tseuuur”. Calls are quiet “tserr”, “wit-wit-sqee-witter-witter” or “tsurp-tseep-tseep” or just “tseep” or “sqee”, occasionally repeated.

Egg-laying recorded in all months in W Africa, Apr and Jun in Gabon and Sept in DRCongo. Territorial. Nest (without hanging “beard”) made of grass, dead leaves and spider webs, lined with feathers, grass and pappus, suspended usually over water at riverside or in mangroves. Clutch 1–2 eggs, grey, faintly washed violet, with dark streaks and spots; incubation by female; no information on duration of incubation and nestling periods.

Not globally threatened. Sometimes abundant and usually not uncommon in mangroves; rarer inland. Susceptible to destruction of mangrove habitats.