Mousebirds were first brought to Europe in the late 1870’s. Until diet and housing was understood they were a fragile species. Mousebirds were not suited to live in small cages, and it was found that they thrived better in large cages or aviaries and in family groups. In their native land, in the wild they may live a little more than 10 years, in captivity with shelter and a good varied diet they will live 12 years or more.
The first mousebirds to be successfully bred in captivity were the Speckled (Bar-breasted) in England as early as 1912. Today, worldwide, mousebirds have made their way into the hearts of dedicated breeders and pet owners. Within the US the most commonly available mousebirds are white-backed, blue-naped, red-faced, and Speckled. The white-headed in US captivity are in zoos. The red-backed has never been (to my knowledge) been imported into the US.
There are 6 species of mousebirds:
Colius
Colius colius (White-backed Mousebird)
Colius striatus (Speckled Mousebird)
Colius leucocephalus (White-headed Mousebird)
Colius castanotus (Red-backed Mousebird)
And a little bit of trivia: The scientific name of the White-backed mousebird is Colius colius. The derivation of colius seems to be the subject of some conjecture, but may be from the Greek koleos meaning a scabbard or sheath, presumably referring to the long tail.
Urocolius
Urocolius indicus (Red-faced Mousebird)
Urocolius macrourus (Blue-naped Mousebird)
The species are divided into 2 genera (as listed above) There are several visual differences between the two genus such as:
Egg color, eye color, feet, crests, tail lengths and number of feathers, bill/beaks, down on chicks, chicks beak and tongue color, in addition to skeletal differences that are distinctive to each genus. I will have digital illustrations on my ‘Visual difference between Species page. If you go to the menu bar and hover over ‘Species of Mousebirds’ there is a drop down menu which I will soon have info on each species and illustrations.
Of the 6 species of mousebirds, only 5 species have been imported into the US: Speckled, Blue-naped, Red-faced, White-backed, and White-headed. Of these 5 species, the most commonly bred and sometimes available are:
White-backed
Blue-Naped
Red-faced
Speckled
NOTE: White-headed are most commonly bred and seen at several of the larger zoos only. I'm unsure if there are any being kept and bred with private breeders
.
Speckled used to be commonly available and bred, but do to age most are no longer reproductive. In order for captive bred Speckled to become plentiful again we are in need of new Imported mousebirds to replenish diminishing bloodlines.
The following 2 blocks of text are from some interesting sites on the internet, with the link to the full article below the text.
The mousebirds could be considered "living fossils" as the 6 species extant today are merely the survivors of a lineage that was massively more diverse in the late Paleogene and Miocene. There are comparatively abundant fossils of Coliiformes, but it has not been easy to assemble a robust phylogeny. The family is documented to exist from the Early Eocene onwards; by the Late Eocene or earlier, two families are known to have existed, the extant Coliidae and the longer-billed prehistorically extinct Sandcoleidae. The latter were previously a separate order, but eventually it was realized that they had come to group ancestral Coraciiformes, parrots, the actual sandcoleids and forms like Neanis together in a paraphyletic assemblage. Even though the sandcoleids are now assumed to be monophyletic following the removal of these taxa, many forms cannot be conclusively assigned to one family or the other. The genus Selmes, for example, is probably a coliid, but only distantly related to the modern genera..
Link to full article: http://www.answers.com/topic/mousebird
Mousebirds, sometimes called colies, are an ancient group of small arboreal birds in Africa. They are so unique in morphological peculiarities that they were proposed as a separate Order of birds as long ago as 1872, and this placement has been confirmed by molecular evidence (Sibley & Ahlquist 1990, Hackett et al. 2008). They are the only Order restricted to sub-Saharan Africa.
There are only two genera among the mousebirds, and four of the six species are placed in Colius, including White-headed Mousebird of east Africa (left). White-headed Mousebird, like most of this genus, is a bird of arid thornscrub. Its range is limited to a band of such thornscrub from s. Somalia to n.e. Tanzania. The most widespread species, Speckled Mousebird C. striatus, occurs more broadly in a variety of woodlands.
The four species of Colius mousebirds are essentially allopatric in distribution, without any significant overlap, and where there is a little range overlap, they separate out by habitat.
Two species of mousebird are assigned to genus Urocolius, including Blue-naped Mousebird (right), a species of dry scrub south of the Sahara. This species has a red facial mask, with the blue nape rather hard to see (but it is visible on the bird in the back). The skeletons of the two genera are different, and Urocolius mousebirds are stronger fliers, while Colius mousebirds spend most of their time 'creeping' through the vegetation, like small rodents, giving rise to their family name.
Link to full article: http://creagrus.home.montereybay.com/mousebirds.html
The first mousebirds to be successfully bred in captivity were the Speckled (Bar-breasted) in England as early as 1912. Today, worldwide, mousebirds have made their way into the hearts of dedicated breeders and pet owners. Within the US the most commonly available mousebirds are white-backed, blue-naped, red-faced, and Speckled. The white-headed in US captivity are in zoos. The red-backed has never been (to my knowledge) been imported into the US.
There are 6 species of mousebirds:
Colius
Colius colius (White-backed Mousebird)
Colius striatus (Speckled Mousebird)
Colius leucocephalus (White-headed Mousebird)
Colius castanotus (Red-backed Mousebird)
And a little bit of trivia: The scientific name of the White-backed mousebird is Colius colius. The derivation of colius seems to be the subject of some conjecture, but may be from the Greek koleos meaning a scabbard or sheath, presumably referring to the long tail.
Urocolius
Urocolius indicus (Red-faced Mousebird)
Urocolius macrourus (Blue-naped Mousebird)
The species are divided into 2 genera (as listed above) There are several visual differences between the two genus such as:
Egg color, eye color, feet, crests, tail lengths and number of feathers, bill/beaks, down on chicks, chicks beak and tongue color, in addition to skeletal differences that are distinctive to each genus. I will have digital illustrations on my ‘Visual difference between Species page. If you go to the menu bar and hover over ‘Species of Mousebirds’ there is a drop down menu which I will soon have info on each species and illustrations.
Of the 6 species of mousebirds, only 5 species have been imported into the US: Speckled, Blue-naped, Red-faced, White-backed, and White-headed. Of these 5 species, the most commonly bred and sometimes available are:
White-backed
Blue-Naped
Red-faced
Speckled
NOTE: White-headed are most commonly bred and seen at several of the larger zoos only. I'm unsure if there are any being kept and bred with private breeders
.
Speckled used to be commonly available and bred, but do to age most are no longer reproductive. In order for captive bred Speckled to become plentiful again we are in need of new Imported mousebirds to replenish diminishing bloodlines.
The following 2 blocks of text are from some interesting sites on the internet, with the link to the full article below the text.
The mousebirds could be considered "living fossils" as the 6 species extant today are merely the survivors of a lineage that was massively more diverse in the late Paleogene and Miocene. There are comparatively abundant fossils of Coliiformes, but it has not been easy to assemble a robust phylogeny. The family is documented to exist from the Early Eocene onwards; by the Late Eocene or earlier, two families are known to have existed, the extant Coliidae and the longer-billed prehistorically extinct Sandcoleidae. The latter were previously a separate order, but eventually it was realized that they had come to group ancestral Coraciiformes, parrots, the actual sandcoleids and forms like Neanis together in a paraphyletic assemblage. Even though the sandcoleids are now assumed to be monophyletic following the removal of these taxa, many forms cannot be conclusively assigned to one family or the other. The genus Selmes, for example, is probably a coliid, but only distantly related to the modern genera..
Link to full article: http://www.answers.com/topic/mousebird
Mousebirds, sometimes called colies, are an ancient group of small arboreal birds in Africa. They are so unique in morphological peculiarities that they were proposed as a separate Order of birds as long ago as 1872, and this placement has been confirmed by molecular evidence (Sibley & Ahlquist 1990, Hackett et al. 2008). They are the only Order restricted to sub-Saharan Africa.
There are only two genera among the mousebirds, and four of the six species are placed in Colius, including White-headed Mousebird of east Africa (left). White-headed Mousebird, like most of this genus, is a bird of arid thornscrub. Its range is limited to a band of such thornscrub from s. Somalia to n.e. Tanzania. The most widespread species, Speckled Mousebird C. striatus, occurs more broadly in a variety of woodlands.
The four species of Colius mousebirds are essentially allopatric in distribution, without any significant overlap, and where there is a little range overlap, they separate out by habitat.
Two species of mousebird are assigned to genus Urocolius, including Blue-naped Mousebird (right), a species of dry scrub south of the Sahara. This species has a red facial mask, with the blue nape rather hard to see (but it is visible on the bird in the back). The skeletons of the two genera are different, and Urocolius mousebirds are stronger fliers, while Colius mousebirds spend most of their time 'creeping' through the vegetation, like small rodents, giving rise to their family name.
Link to full article: http://creagrus.home.montereybay.com/mousebirds.html
Links to some interesting photos of mousebirds on the internet
White-headed
http://www.dongettyphoto.com/kenya/images04/Mousebirds.jpg
Speckled-hanging
http://www.mangoverde.com/birdsound/picpages/pic87-1-3.html
Speckled cluster
http://www.sirbooga.com/alwt/TANZANIA/arkMousebirds.JPG
White-headed cluster
http://www.birdquest.co.uk/tour_images/82636356.jpg
White-headed at the NC zoo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/63975397@N00/3141221402
White-headed on branch
http://www.flickr.com/photos/larrywfu/3140399365/sizes/l/in/set-72157611695085324/
White-headed:
http://www.birdquest.net/afbid/birdspecies.php?func=view&slideno=1&af_bs_id=907
Red-faced flock
http://www.mangoverde.com/birdsound/picpages/pic87-6-1.html
Red-faced, alert
http://www.mangoverde.com/birdsound/picpages/pic87-6-1.html
Juvenile red-faced:
http://www.birdquest.net/afbid/birdspecies.php?func=view&slideno=4&af_bs_id=902
Red-Backed Illus
http://tinyurl.com/yhl8df2
Red-Backed:
http://www.birdquest.net/afbid/birdspecies.php?func=view&slideno=2&af_bs_id=905
African Bird Club, Photos of Mousebirds:
http://www.birdquest.net/afbid/search.php?keyword=mousebird&btnsearch=search
Albino or Leucistic Speckled Mousebird
http://tinyurl.com/33buvpu
http://www.zestforbirds.co.za/leuspecmouse1.html
http://www.dongettyphoto.com/kenya/images04/Mousebirds.jpg
Speckled-hanging
http://www.mangoverde.com/birdsound/picpages/pic87-1-3.html
Speckled cluster
http://www.sirbooga.com/alwt/TANZANIA/arkMousebirds.JPG
White-headed cluster
http://www.birdquest.co.uk/tour_images/82636356.jpg
White-headed at the NC zoo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/63975397@N00/3141221402
White-headed on branch
http://www.flickr.com/photos/larrywfu/3140399365/sizes/l/in/set-72157611695085324/
White-headed:
http://www.birdquest.net/afbid/birdspecies.php?func=view&slideno=1&af_bs_id=907
Red-faced flock
http://www.mangoverde.com/birdsound/picpages/pic87-6-1.html
Red-faced, alert
http://www.mangoverde.com/birdsound/picpages/pic87-6-1.html
Juvenile red-faced:
http://www.birdquest.net/afbid/birdspecies.php?func=view&slideno=4&af_bs_id=902
Red-Backed Illus
http://tinyurl.com/yhl8df2
Red-Backed:
http://www.birdquest.net/afbid/birdspecies.php?func=view&slideno=2&af_bs_id=905
African Bird Club, Photos of Mousebirds:
http://www.birdquest.net/afbid/search.php?keyword=mousebird&btnsearch=search
Albino or Leucistic Speckled Mousebird
http://tinyurl.com/33buvpu
http://www.zestforbirds.co.za/leuspecmouse1.html
©2009-2010 Susanne Russo, all rights reserved. Anything copied or printed from this site is for personal use ONLY. No portion of this site may be reproduced or distributed without the permission of Susanne Russo.
