White- necked Rockfowl

"I saw a picture of it in a book and was appalled at how bad the art was. Then I looked it up and realised that it actually looks like that! Plasters its nest to the rock in caves or overhanging rocks. Prefers getting there by hopping rather than flying." "Their colorful art deco-esque face masks make them look like no other extant bird."

Submitted as 'Yellow-headed Picathartes'

Going into the latin name of this species, Picathartes comes from 'pica' for magpie and 'cathartes' for vulture, and gymnoceohalus means 'naked head'. Since this genus was originally thought to ve a member of the crow family, it makes sense they'd give the new genus name some tie to corvids.

Picathartes live in rocky jungles of southern West Africa, preferring to nest on cliffs or in caves by hanging their mud nests from the walls. They can be colonial nesters, but often are antagonistic towards their neighbors and their chicks.

Picathartes have a wide ranging diet of insects, but they also seem to show preference for following army-ant swarms and picking off insects that are trying to flee the ants. When feeding nestlings, it seems they prefer to catch frogs and lizards rather than just insects.

Interestingly, this species is one that helped launch David Attenborough's career. Another presenter was supoosed to go and film a show (Zoo Quest; 1954) documenting the capture of animals for zoos. When the original presenter fell ill, Attenborough took his place and launched his career as a narrator.

Sources:

Image Source: eBird ( Dubi Shapiro)

White-necked Rockfowl aka White-necked Picathartes (Picathartes gymnocephalus), family Picathartidae, order Passeriformes, Ghana

photograph by Rob Williams Rockjumper - Worldwide Birding Adventures

Smart Birdy!

The white-necked-rockfowl is a beautiful species from Africa

They will follow swarms of Dorylus army ants and eat any of the other insects that try to escape the swam

A great example of working smarter not harder

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📷1: “White-necked Rockfowl (Picathartes gymnocephalus)cropped.jpg” by Michael Andersen on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

📷2: “White-necked Rockfowl - Ghana S4E2922 (19493741601).jpg” by Francesco Veronesi on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

📷3: “Picathartes” by Caroline Granycome on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Not me looking at this guy for a solid 5 minutes trying to figure out wheter he's AI generator, or he just looks like an unpolished 3d blender model.

Turns out it's the second one and they're called White-necked rockfowls, scientifically Picathartes (from latin meaning magpie vulture) Gymnocephalus (from greek meaning naked head). Their taxonomy jumped around many a bird families: crows and starlings to name a few. However now, with the closely related grey-necked rockfowl, they make up the separate Picathartidae family.

Picathartes gymnocephalus by Michael Andersen

Today I draw with my friend and it was lively. The creation of the Hybrids turned out to be quite fun. 

1.Treron phoenicopterus +  Dendrolagus +  Saguinus imperator 2. Synchiropus splendidus +  Eudyptula minor +  Limacodidae= Euclidae (Olona) 3.Peacock + Spilogale putorius + Picathartes gymnocephalus

The white-necked rockfowl (Picathartes gymnocephalus) is native to the higher-altitude, rocky, forested areas of West Africa. This species helped launch Sir David Attenborough's career in 1954 when he produced a new TV series called Zoo Quest. It is among the favorite African birds for ecotourists.

Source: https://bit.ly/2vI4LIm

arthur kirkland is a david attenborough stan and nobody can convince me otherwise. bet he rewatches those old as hell Zoo Quest episodes BBC produced in the 1950s for nostalgia. (‘be quiet will you francis, i’m watching sir david go up close to the rare Picathartes gymnocephalus’ ‘the what—oh. can’t you just say white-necked rockfowl?’)

White-necked Rockfowl (Picathartes gymnocephalus)

The Birds That Have Lived for 44 Million Years - Africa - BBC

The Picathartes have lived in the Congo for 44 million years. When these birds mate they mate for life therefore they have to make a good team.

via: BBC Earth

photograph by Michael Andersen | Wikipedia

White-necked Rockfowl aka White-necked Picathartes (Picathartes gymnocephalus), family Picathartidae, order Passeriformes, Ghana

photograph by Marius Coetzee

November 20, 2015 - Bare-headed Rockfowl, White-necked Rockfowl, or White-necked Picathartes (Picathartes gymnocephalus)

These birds live in forests in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana, particularly in rocky areas. They eat invertebrates, plucking them from the ground and sometimes following army ants to hunt insects fleeing the swarms. Nesting in caves, on cliffs, and in hollow trees, they use mud and plants to build their nests, attaching them to a rock or branch, often near other pairs of rockfowl. Classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN, their low reproductive rate adds to the threats they face from nest predation and competition, as well as trapping and human disturbance. Their genus name, Picathartes, comes from words meaning magpie (pica) and vulture (cathartes).

1 Grey-necked Rockfowl, Picathartes oreas

2 White-necked Rockfowl, Picathartes gymnocephalus

From: Die Vögel Afrikas by Ant. Reichenow

White-necked Rockfowl aka White-necked Picathartes (Picathartes gymnocephalus), family Picathartidae, Ghana

photograph by Frank Oling

White-necked Rockfowl aka White-necked Picathartes (Picathartes gymnocephalus), family Picathartidae, Ghana

photograph by Adam Riley

Picathartes gymnocephalus - the White-necked Rockfowl

From: Ibis 1871 by J G Keulemans