Appearance
The blue-naped mousebird is a fairly small to medium-sized bird, measuring 13-14 inches in length. Adults have an ash brown, grayish body, crested head with a turquoise nape, and a black-and-red bill, whereas juveniles lack the blue on nape, and have pink facial skin and greenish bills.Characteristic of mousebirds, the blue-naped mousebird has widely spaced and large feet for its body size, which are pamprodactylous; they are able to rotate all four toes to face forward at will. Their toes are strong and dextrous, allowing the birds to climb and scurry along branches, to hang by a toenail, or to use one foot to hold food.
Distribution
In the wild, these birds live in the semi-desert and dry regions of eastern Africa They are found in a band between 10°N and 20°N from the western coast to Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia in the East and south 10°N through East Africa and on to the Eastern Zaire borders.Status
This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion. The population size has not been quantified, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion. For these reasons the species is evaluated as least concern.References:
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