Rufous-bellied helmetshrike
species of bird
The rufous-bellied helmetshrike or Gabon helmetshrike (Prionops rufiventris) is a passerine bird belonging to the Vanga family, Vangidae. It inhabits tropical forest in Central Africa. It is sometimes included within the chestnut-bellied helmetshrike (P. caniceps) of West Africa.
Description
It is 20–22 cm long. The adult has glossy black upperparts and throat and reddish-brown underparts with a narrow white breastband. The top and sides of the head and the chin are pale blue-grey and there are bushy whitish feathers on the forehead. The wings are broad and rounded with a white band across the primaries. The bill, legs and feet are orange-red and the eye is yellow with a bare orange-red ring around it. The eastern subspecies P. r. mentalis has darker underparts and a grey-brown eye.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1310713. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rufous-bellied helmetshrike” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.