The biology of the Gola Malimbe Malimbus ballmanni Wolters 1974

SummaryThe Gola Malimbe Malimbus ballmanni survives in two general areas of Upper Guinea Forest, both focused in Liberia adjacent to easternmost Sierra Leone and westernmost Ivory Coast, where the species was first recorded in the 1970s. The eastern population extends over an area of at least 18,000 km2 and may consist of some 20,000 to 50,000 birds, the species being locally common in lowland rainforest. The western population covers at least 200–300 km2, but numbers are hard to judge. Both populations are under severe threat from habitat destruction, particularly the western. M. ballmanni and M. racheliae form a superspecies as the forest-interior counterparts of the canopy-haunting M. scutatus and M. cassini. M. ballmanni is found between 8 m and 22 m in high forest (79% of recorded cases), higher than M. nitens, lower than M. scutatus; it joins mixed bird parties and feeds on insects of the same size-class as in scutatus, smaller than in nitens. Annual life-cycle is seasonally adapted, with nesting when the rains end and in the transitional and dry season, occasionally in the intermediate dry season. Most birds moult in the first half of the year. Nests hang on lianas, in open galleries at 8 to 21 m. Up to five birds may help build a nest, with labour divided between males and females (which also have different song phrases). Biometric data of adult and immature birds are given.