Red-faced Mousebird

Open encyclopedia reference

The red-faced mousebird (Urocolius indicus) is a species of mousebird or coly. It is a common in southern Africa from the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), Zambia and Tanzania south to the Cape. Its habitat is savanna with thickets, fynbos scrub, other open woodland, gardens and orchards. There are a total of five recognized subspecies: Urocolius indicus mossambicus (Distribution: east Angola to southwest Tanzania and Malawi) Urocolius indicus lacteifrons (Distribution: western Angola, north & central Namibia and western Botswana) Urocolius indicus pallidus (Distribution: southeast Tanzania and northeast Mozambique) Urocolius indicus transvaalensis (Distribution: Central and eastern Botswana and southwest Zambia to Mozambique and South Africa) Urocolius indicus indicus (Distribution: south and central South Africa) This bird is about 34 cm (13 in) long, with the tail comprising approximately half the length. The crested head and breast are pale cinnamon with a red bill and eye mask. The rest of the upperparts and tail are blue-grey apart from a paler grey rump. The belly is whitish. The sexes are similar, but juveniles lack the crest and have a green mask.

Wikipedia contributors, Red-faced mousebird; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:38:39.366097+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Urocolius indicus (Latham, 1790)

Name authority

(Latham, 1790)

Common name

Red-faced Mousebird

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Coliiformes

Family

Coliidae

Genus

Urocolius

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classAves
9. orderColiiformes
10. familyColiidae
11. genusUrocolius Bonaparte, 1854
12. speciesUrocolius indicus (Latham, 1790)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Urocolius. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 4 records assigned to Coliidae.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=554671 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:7DTGZ. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.