From Opus

Adult. Photo by Widus
Mkuze Game Reserve, South Africa.

Alternative name: Red-billed Helmetshrike

Prionops retzii

[edit] Identification

Length 19-21 cm. Black body with brown back and wing coverts; vent and undertail coverts white.
Red bill, legs and eye wattle are missing or subdued in the juvenile.

[edit] Distribution

Africa: Southern Somalia to Angola and north-eastern South Africa.

Juvenile. Photo by Alan Manson
Berg-en-Dal, Kruger National Park, South Africa, January 2010

[edit] Taxonomy

Prionops retzii has four subspecies:^[1]

• P. r. graculinus

• Southern Somalia to eastern Kenya and north-eastern Tanzania

• P. r. tricolor

• Tanzania to Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique and eastern South Africa (Mpumalanga and northern KwaZulu-Natal)

• P. r. nigricans

• Angola to north-western Zambia and south-eastern DRC

• P. r. retzii

• North-eastern South Africa (Limpopo Province) to Zimbabwe, southern Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Angola

[edit] Habitat

Woodland and riparian forest.

[edit] Behaviour

Usually found in groups of 2-15, moving between trees in a cohesive group. Feeds on invertebrates found mainly on branches, trunks and twigs.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Hockey, PAR, WRJ Dean, and PG Ryan, eds. 2005. Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa. 7th ed. Cape Town: John Voelcker Bird Book Fund. ISBN 978-0620340533
3. Sinclair, I and P Ryan. 2003. Birds of Africa South of the Sahara. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691118154

• List of references

[edit] External Links