Telacanthura ussheri
Silhouette: Aviceda (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The mottled spinetail (Telacanthura ussheri) is a species of swift in the family Apodidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The mottled spinetail was formally described in 1870 by the English ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe based on a specimen collected near Fort Victoria, Cape Coast, in present-day Ghana, by the British colonial administrator Herbert Taylor Ussher. Ussher would later become Governor of the Gold Coast. Sharpe coined the binomial name Chaetura ussheri where the specific epithet was named after the collector. The mottled spinetail is now placed together with the black spinetail in the genus Telacanthura that was introduced in 1918 by the Australian-born ornithologist Gregory Mathews.
Four subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 3 | Mana Pools National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 4 | Ruaha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 5 | Lower Zambezi National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 6 | Gonarezhou National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 7 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Arusha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 9 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lagos | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 2 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 3 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Mottled Spinetail sighting in Mana Pools National Park on a given day, based on 61 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 127th most-seen of the 275 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November and December
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Mottled Spinetail in Mana Pools National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May and September, the lowest months. Those are among Mana Pools National Park's wettest months, with about 100 mm of rain a month against almost none in August. March has too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Mottled Spinetail sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 9
Of the 9 parks where we can rate Mottled Spinetail sightings, Mana Pools National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Tarangire National Park (Tanzania, about 20%) and Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 20%).
Same family: Apodidae
The closest relatives of the Mottled Spinetail that you can see in Mana Pools National Park (family Apodidae, Swifts) are African Palm-Swift (about 30%), Bat-like Spinetail (about 20%) and Horus Swift (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Mottled Spinetail is recorded against all the birds logged in Mana Pools National Park (61 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
