Mottled Spinetail (Telacanthura ussheri)

Other Names (World)
Mottled Spinetail, Ussher's Spinetail, Ussher's Spinetailed Swift, Mottle-throated Spinetail, Mottle-throated Spinetailed Swift

Family
Apodidae (Swifts)

Size
13 - 14 cm

First Described (Guide)
(Sharpe, 1870)

Habitat
Subtropical and tropical dry forest. From sea-level - 2,200 m.

Range (Guide)

Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], C�te dIvoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania [United Republic of], Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Vagrant to Sierra Leone, Somalia.

Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).

Status LC
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

Voice
Xeno-Canto Sound Files

Mottled Spinetail (Telacanthura ussheri) [XC124661]
by id from Ukami Forest, Udzungwa Mts, Iringa Region, Tanzania (call)

Mottled Spinetail (Telacanthura ussheri) [XC124660]
by Louis A. Hansen from Ukami Forest, Udzungwa Mts, Iringa Region, Tanzania (call)

Subspecies
Genus formerly merged into Chaetura, or occasionally Rhaphidura. It has been suggested that present species may be better treated as two due to differences in plumage, structure and habitat, though precise situation of dividing line unclear. Proposed subspecies marwitzi of Wemberere steppe, Tanzania, known only from type, and believed to represent aberrant individual of subspecies stictilaema.

The following 4 subspecies are recognised:

ussheri (Sharpe, 1870) - Broken range from Senegambia to Nigeria.
sharpei (Neumann, 1908) - Cameroon to Gabon, and Zaire east to Uganda.
stictilaema (Reichenow, 1879) - Central-eastern Africa, and recently also Zanzibar and Pemba I.
benguellensis (Neumann, 1908) - Western Angola and south-eastern Africa.

References
See References.

Files:

JPG files for Mottled Spinetail (Telacanthura ussheri) - 10 files

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BirdLife International

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