Mousebirds | Coliiformes

Muisvogelachtigen | Pájaros ratón

Small, long-tailed birds confined to Africa south of the Sahara; outside the continent the order is known only as a fossil, from the Palaeogene of Europe and North America, so the present range is the remnant of a far wider one. The plumage is soft and hair-like because the barbs hardly interlock, every species carries an upstanding crest, and the tail is stiff and much longer than the body. The foot is the distinctive feature: all four toes can be swung forward, while the first and fourth can also be turned back, so the bird grips thin twigs in any posture and works through them hanging and clambering sideways. The food is almost entirely vegetable and hard to digest — fruit, buds, flowers, leaves — and is gathered in a capacious crop. They live in small, noisy parties that roost pressed together in a bunch and in the morning turn to the sun with the legs apart and the belly feathers raised. The order contains a single family.

Families in this order

Mousebirds | Coliidae4 speciesThe six species of this family — the only family in the order — occur solely in Africa south of the Sahara; nowhere else in the world is one found, and outside the continent the group is known only as a fossil. They are small birds with a short, compact body, a heavy, short and slightly curved bill and a stiff, tapering tail two to three times the length of the body, pressed against the branch as a prop while climbing. The plumage is soft and hair-like, dull grey or brown and finely barred in several species; the crest is almost always raised and the bare skin around the eye and bill base is bright red or blue in some of them. The legs are short and strong and all four toes can be swung forward, so the bird grips thin twigs in any posture and works through them hanging and moving sideways. They live in noisy parties that follow one another in a weak, straight-line flight, eat fruit, flowers, buds and leaves, and roost pressed together in a bunch, the body temperature dropping sharply on cold nights. The nest is a loose, shallow cup of twigs in a bush; the young leave it before they can fly and clamber about in the branches.