From Opus

Photo by xentox
Liberia, September 2005

Cypsiurus parvus

[edit] Identification

Length 15-16 cm, mass 10-18 g. Pale brown. Slender, with long swept-back wings, a long and deeply forked tail, and very short legs which they use only for clinging to vertical surfaces.

[edit] Distribution

Sub-Saharan Africa and south-western Arabia
Western Africa: Mauritania, Senegambia, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland
African Islands: Gulf of Guinea Islands, Bioko (Fernando Po), Sao Tome, Principe, Madagascar
Middle East: Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Yemen

[edit] Taxonomy

There are eight subspecies:^[1]

• C. p. parvus

• Senegambia to southern Sudan, Ethiopia and south-western Arabia

• C. p. brachypterus

• Sierra Leone to north-eastern DRC, Angola and the Gulf of Guinea islands

• C. p. myochrous

• Higher elevations from southern Sudan to north-eastern South Africa

• C. p. laemostigma

• Coastal lowlands of southern Somalia to Mozambique

• C. p. hyphaenes

• Northern Namibia and northern Botswana

• C. p. celer

• Mozambique to KwaZulu-Natal

• C. p. griveaudi

• Comoro Islands

• C. p. gracilis

• Madagascar

[edit] Habitat

Open country, strongly associated with oil palms and other palm trees.

[edit] Behaviour

They spend most of their lives in the air.

[edit] Breeding

They build a nest of down and feather which is attached by saliva to the underside of a palm leaf. 2 eggs are laid.

[edit] Diet

The diet includes insects which are aerially hawked.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Avibase

• List of references

[edit] External Links