The white-necked rockfowl is a medium-sized bird in the family Picathartidae, with a long neck and tail. It is mainly found in rocky forested areas at higher altitudes in West Africa from Guinea to Ghana. The bird is monogamous and pairs nest either alone or in the vicinity of other pairs. This species is classified as Vulnerable as its dwindling and fragmented populations are threatened by habitat destruction.
About White-necked rockfowl in brief
The white-necked rockfowl is a medium-sized bird in the family Picathartidae, with a long neck and tail. It is mainly found in rocky forested areas at higher altitudes in West Africa from Guinea to Ghana. The bird is monogamous and pairs nest either alone or in the vicinity of other pairs, sometimes in colonies with as many as eight nests. This species is classified as Vulnerable as its dwindling and fragmented populations are threatened by habitat destruction. Conservation efforts are underway in parts of its range in the form of habitat protection, education efforts, and new laws. Some of the indigenous peoples of Sierra Leone considered the species to be a protector of the home of their ancestral spirits. The species name is derived from the Ancient Greek words gymnos \”naked\”, and kephalē \”head\”. It was first described by Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1825 from a specimen collected on the Guinean coast. It has no recognized subspecies, though some believe that it forms a superspecies with the grey- necked rock fowl. It and its close relative, the greynecked fowl, are believed to comprise a unique family, PicathARTidae. The name Picatharts refers to the species’ habit of building mud nests on rock surfaces and the scientific name is a reference to its featherless head and somewhat crow-like appearance. It was originally placed in the crow genus Corvus, but it was later placed in its own genus,Picathartes, as it did not share characteristics common to members of CorvUS such as a feathered head.
Since its initial description, the picatharts have been placed in more than five different families, including those of crows, starlings, Old World flycatchers, babblers and Old World warblers. It has also been suggested though not generally accepted that the two Rockfowls represent the remnants of an ancient bird order. The analysis suggests that the rockfow split from the common ancestor of their clade 44 million years ago. It’s believed that the ancestor of this clade originated in Australia and spread to Africa and then spread to the rest of the world. Common names for this species include white- Necked picatharte, yellow-headed bare-headed picathARTes, and the less frequently used whitenecked bald-headed bald-fowl, all of which refer to its plumage and facial differences between the two species’ different plumage patterns. The birds breed in colonies, though infanticide is fairly common in this species. Two eggs are laid twice a year. Nestlings mature in about a month. This bird is long-lived, with adults feeding on insects, though parents feed small frogs to their young. It typically chooses to live near streams and inselbergs, though the bird is usually silent, although some calls are known. It rarely flies for long distances, and is considered one of Africa’s most desirable birds.
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This page is based on the article White-necked rockfowl published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
