Gola malimbe

The Gola malimbe or Ballman's malimbe (Malimbus ballmanni) is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae.

Gola malimbe
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Ploceidae
Genus: Malimbus
Species:
M. ballmanni
Binomial name
Malimbus ballmanni

Description

The Gola malimbe is a black forest weaver, the males have an orange-yellow nape, bright golden-yellow crescent on the breast and golden yellow patch on the vent. The female is almost completely black with an indistinct yellowish crescent on the breast. Juveniles are similar to the adults but duller and the yellow on the breast extends to the throat.. Length is 17 cm.[3]

Voice

The males song includes a series of unmusical, chattering sounds followed by a wheezing phrase and lasts roughly three seconds "cheg chig cheg cheg chega zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz", and is similar to that of the village weaver. The females' song is similar but lacks the wheezing part at the end "cheg cheg chig chag chaaag cheg chiiig".[3]

Distribution and habitat

The Gola malimbe is found in west Africa where there are three known populations, the first in the Gola Forest in Sierra Leone and in western Liberia, the second from eastern Liberia to western Ivory Coast and the third in Diecke Forest Reserve in Guinea.[1]

Its natural habitat is lowland primary rainforest, lightly logged forest and old secondary growth.[1]

Habits

The Gola malimbe is usually found singly or in small groups in the canopy of the lower storey, between 8 and 22m from the ground, where it forages for insects. It will join mixed species flocks. There appear to be two breeding seasons, a minor breeding season in the short, intermediate dry season in July and August and a main breeding season in October and November [3][1]

Conservation

The Gola malimbe is threatened by habitat loss, especially deforestation. Although it occurs in a number of protected areas these have been subject to illegal logging, especially in the lawlessness caused by civil conflicts within its range. Its conservation status is assessed as endangered.[1]

Etymology

The common name and scientific name commemorate the German geoscientist Peter Ballmann who also collected birds, including one of the first specimens of this species.[4]

gollark: For purposes ONLY.
gollark: Perhaps I should host an XMPP server to connect with APIONET, or consume the apioform and run synapse and have 0 (zero) RAM memory.
gollark: Ah. I see.
gollark: We can see you fine, ovalo.
gollark: No.

References
  1. "Malimbus ballmanni". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  2. "Malimbus ballmanni Wolters, 1974". Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) (https://www.itis.gov). Retrieved 2016-11-19.
  3. Nik Borrow; Ron Demey (2001). Birds of Western Africa. Christopher Helm. pp. 745–746. ISBN 0-7136-3959-8.
  4. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael (2003). Whose Bird? Men and Women Commemorated in the Common Names of Birds. London: Christopher Helm. p. 36.
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