Blue-naped Mousebird (Urocolius macrourus) at Cincinnati Zoo) by Lee
Thanks for patience as the Lee’s Birdwatching Adventures blog is being updated to the new I.O.C. Version 9.2. Along with cataract eye surgery this week, brain freeze [Couldn’t get my Excel to build my links. Oh, no! Could it be old age?], and a holiday, I think most of it is finished.
“But now finish doing it also, so that just as there was the readiness to desire it, so there may be also the completion of it by your ability. For if the readiness is present, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.” (2 Corinthians 8:11-12 NASB)
I am still updating these new Family pages. They added six new families, but one of them was the old Incertae Sedis Family (now Hyliidae-Hylias). It was a holding place for birds they didn’t know where to place. With all the DNA testing going on, they keep finding surprises. In the future, they will most like shuffle some more families and species around.
Endemic to Africa, about the size of a normal sparrow, crested head and beautiful cinnamon colored breast and strawberry red mask and bill. They are especially beautiful in the early morning sun. Their general body color is blue-grey or slate-ish.
With its long tail, about the same length as the body, they look like mice when they climb around in trees, therefore the name. Their outside toes are reversed to allow them to do just that, moving forward and backward as they climb around in the trees. They are more nervous of people than especially the Speckled Mousebird, which we have done before….. (To see the rest of the article – click here)
Lee’s Addition:
The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: … (Nahum 2:3a KJV)
Strawberry (Red-faced) Mousebird – Urocolius Indicus is re-blogged and was written on one of the blogs I follow, Our Rumbling Ocean. It is produced in South Africa.
Anyway, I wanted to share these beautiful Mousebirds with you.
Mousebirds are members of the Mousebirds – Coliidae Family and consist of only six species. And, no, the plural of Mousebird is not “Micebirds.”
Blue-naped Mousebird (Urocolius macrourus) at Cincinnati Zoo) by Lee
I know all the birds of the mountains, And the wild beasts of the field are Mine. (Psalms 50:11 NKJV)
I was happy to finally get to see the Mousebirds. Have known and read about them, but had not been able to watch them. They were on my “birds to see” list at the zoo.
Blue-naped Mousebird (Urocolius macrourus) at Cincinnati Zoo) by Lee
They are slender greyish or brown birds with soft, hairlike body feathers. They are typically about 10 cm in body length, with a long, thin tail a further 20–24 cm in length, and weigh 45–55 grams. They are arboreal and scurry through the leaves like rodents, in search of berries, fruit and buds. This habit, and their legs, gives rise to the group’s English name. They are acrobatic, and can feed upside down. All species have strong claws and reversible outer toes (pamprodactyl foot). They also have crests and stubby bills.
Mousebirds are gregarious, again reinforcing the analogy with mice, and are found in bands of about 20 in lightly wooded country. These birds build cup-shaped twig nests in trees, which are lined with grasses. Two to four eggs are typically laid, hatching to give quite precocious young which soon leave the nest and acquire flight.
Blue-naped Mousebird (Urocolius macrourus) at Cincinnati Zoo) by Lee
One Mousebird, supposedly the male, was hopping up and down. This video shows the two of them. One watching and one jumping. The orange bird is ignoring the whole deal. (I had been watching for a while and then decided to video, of course he went behind the branch.)
(Wikipedia with editing)
Bonus:
Nape – An easy definition is the back of the neck.
Notice the Nape between the Crown and the Back
There are quite a few birds that have colored napes that help identify them, such as Woodpeckers, Grebes, etc. Our Blue-naped Mousebird is one where the color of the “nape” is used in its name. While learning to bird watch, I kept saying (and still do) that the Lord should have placed little signs on them. That way when we look at them through binoculars, scopes, cameras, or our eyes, that we could just read the sign.
That is not the way it is, but there are many clues do that help us ID the birds. The variety of the birds with their colors and shapes keep us busy, but aren’t we thankful that He didn’t make them all alike. How boring that would be.
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