h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've just found some great photos of a very elusive birdie! It's the African Piculet. I know it as Sasia africana but on the site its scientific name is given as Verreauxia africana. This might mean that recent studies have shown it to be significantly different from the Asian piculets of the genus Sasia in which it had previously been classified, to warrant its own genus.

Here are the pics:

http://www.larsfoto.se/en/gallery/bird-images-from-foreign-trips/cameroon/3974-african-piculet

http://www.larsfoto.se/en/gallery/bird-images-from-foreign-trips/cameroon/3975-african-piculet

http://www.larsfoto.se/en/gallery/bird-images-from-foreign-trips/cameroon/3976-african-piculet

http://www.larsfoto.se/en/gallery/bird-images-from-foreign-trips/cameroon/3977-african-piculet

Now that thingy is very, very special. It is an exceedingly tiny kind of woodpecker! It is one of the shortest birds in Africa, measuring only about three inches from bill to tail stretched out. It hardly has a tail, as you can see. It is not particularly woodpecker-like either. Typical woodpeckers do have tails - in fact they have enhanced tails with stiffened feathers to prop them up as they clamber up tree trunks.

Piculets form a subgroup in the woodpecker family. (They're piciforms like the honeyguide I recently wrote about.) Most piculets are found in South America, but a few live in Asia and just this one in Africa. They don't have the long strong woodpecker bills either, just a short but sharp beak. They can still peck wood, but I think they'll probably pick the softer kinds of wood to hammer around in.

African piculets are VERY hard to photograph, and the previous photos I've come across have been exceedingly crummy. They are first of all extremely active, hardly ever sitting still for longer than a tenth of a second. Secondly they live in the rainforest, which is hard to get into and where lighting conditions are poor. Also, the piculet typically keeps in the densest underbrush. This photographer, Lars Petersson, was either very lucky or very persistent. Kudos to him.

If you're up for it PLEASE check out his other photos on that album. Most (actually probably all) of you will not realise what precious rarities he managed to capture there, but just enjoy the birds for their prettiness.

That's an amazing birdie, Willem!

Hi Dmitri, you might also enjoy this one, it's a sunbird:

http://www.larsfoto.se/en/gallery/bird-images-from-foreign-trips/cameroon/4134-splendid-sunbird?page=4

That one shows off the amazing irridescent feathers that most sunbirds have. It is difficult to capture on a photo. In life the colours shimmer and change hue with every movement the bird makes. Three different species of sunbird come to my garden: White-bellied, Marico, and Black. Even the black sunbird is pretty, it does have irridescent green and purple feathers on its head and wings. Sunbirds drink nectar from flowers - and I have sunbird-attracting flowers in the garden year round. They also catch small insects and spiders. They're small and agile but cannot hover the way hummingbirds can.

What a lovely variety of birds you have.

We've got fun ones, but the most colourful are the cardinals and bluejays. We also have some very aggressive brown doves.