Here's some more birds from my upcoming, "Hoopoes & Scimitarbills". Here's the Black Scimitarbill. Scimitarbill get their names, not surprisingly, from their decurved bills. Most of the Scimitarbills (and Woodhoopoes) are very similiar in appearance and mostly vary in their iridescent sheen and bill color. While not endangered, their only current known threat posed is destruction of trees that species uses for foraging, nesting and roosting. Many people do not understand the value of a dead or dying tree. In my own yard, we have a slowing dying elm that is home to two different woodpecker species over the last 4 years. We just prune it to make it look not too unslightly and not a fire danger to the property. The tree is also used by many birds to cache their food and lizards as their homes. The Black Scimitarbill is endemic to Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo, and Uganda. It is found in wooded savanna and dry bush country to the limits of trees and generally avoids the forest. It eats mostly insects, including ants and their larvae, adult beetles, mantids, caterpillars, pupae, some spiders and small berries. It is an agile bird, hanging upside-down and dropping or diving vertically. It probes crevices and searches flowers for insects. It is seen solitary, in pairs or sometimes small family groups (up to five individuals). It can also be found in mixed-species foraging parties. It is also known as the Black Woodhoopoe and its subspecies differ, apart from location found, in shades of blue and violet and in amount of white on wings and tail. Rendered in iray