Puvel's illadopsis

Photo by Krzysztof Blachowiak (Internet Bird Collection)

Common name:
Puvel’s illadopsis (en); falso-tordo-de-Cacine (pt); akalat de Puvel (fr); tordina de Puvel (es); großfuß-buschdrossling (de)

Taxonomy:
Order Passeriformes
Family Timaliidae

Range:
This African species is patchily distributed, with two disjunct subspecies. I.p. puveli is found is West Africa, from Senegal to Togo, while I.p. strenuipes occurs in a few patches in southern Nigeria and Cameroon, and in north-eastern D.R. Congo, southern South Sudan and western Uganda.

Size:
These birds are 17-18 cm long and weigh 38-52 g.

Habitat:
The Puvel’s illadopsis is mostly found in the undergrowth of moist tropical forests, particularly gallery forests, but also use moist scrublands, dry savannas, dry tropical forests and second growths.

Diet:
They mainly forage on the ground, among the leaf litter, taking various invertebrates such as ants and spiders.

Breeding:
These birds breed in August-March. The nest is a mossy cup paced about 2 m above the ground. There is no further information regarding the reproduction of this species.

Conservation:
IUCN status – LC (Least Concern)
This species has a large breeding range. The global population size is yet to be quantified, but it is reported to be probably overlooked and therefore under-recorded. The population is suspected to be stable in the absence of evidence for any current declines or substantial threats.