Mystery bird: Blue-naped mousebird, Urocolius macrourus

Blue-naped mousebird, Urocolius macrourus, Linnaeus, 1766 (synonym, Colius macrourus; protonym, Lanius macrourus), also known as the blue-naped coly, photographed near Nazrēt, Ethiopia (Africa).

Image: Dan Logen, 27 January 2011 (with permission) [velociraptorize].
Nikon D300s, 600 mm lens, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec, ISO 640

Question: This peculiar little Ethiopian mystery bird is a popular pet in the United States. Can you identify this bird's taxonomic family? Can you identify this species?

Response: This is an adult blue-naped mousebird, Urocolius macrourus, a small bird whose preferred habitat is semi-desert and dry regions, as you can see in the featured photograph. This individual is an adult as is apparent from its crest, blue nape and its black-and-red bill, characters that juveniles lack. These birds mainly eat fruit but also consume leaves, flowers and buds. This strange little bird can eat whilst in any position, including upside down.

Here's a video of a captive blue-naped mousebird (right side up) consuming large pieces of fruit that threaten to choke it to death (filmed at WeltVogelpark in Walsrode, Germany, uploaded on 6 April 2011):

Mousebirds have large feet for their body size, and they are pamprodactylous; they can rotate all four toes to face forward at will. Their toes are strong and dextrous and allow the birds to climb and scurry along branches, to hang by a toenail, and to use one foot to hold food. Mousebirds' legs are widely spaced and they can rotate widely. The birds typically hang by its legs when sleeping rather than squatting over them as most birds do, and they commonly grasp a different upright branch with each foot.

As mentioned by TwitchEd, mousebirds are so named because their movements through bushes and along branches resemble those of small rodents. This species' alternate common name is the "blue-naped coly", which comes from its former scientific name, Colius macrourus.

There are just extant six species of mousebirds. They are the last survivors of an ancient lineage that was far more diverse in the late Paleogene and Miocene than it is today.

You are invited to review all of the daily mystery birds by going to their dedicated graphic index page.

If you have bird images, video or mp3 files that you'd like to share with a large and (mostly) appreciative international audience here at The Guardian, feel free to contact me to learn more.

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