Africa Wild Bird Book

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586. Mountain Wheatear (Formerly known as Mountain Chat) Myrmecocichla monticola, Oenanthe monticola (Bergwagter)
Order: Passeriformes. Family: Muscicapidae

Mountain Wheatear.jpg (53.03 KiB) Viewed 1326 times

Description
Length 18-20 cm, mass about 35 g. Like other wheatears, it has a distinctive tail pattern, with a white rump and outer tail feathers. Its legs and pointed bill are black.
Males show variable plumage colouration and occur in three different variations; a grey morph, a dark morph and a pied morph. But all have a white rump, white sides to the tail and a white shoulder patch. The body plumage varies from pale grey to almost black. The white cap may or may not be present (crown may be white, grey or black). The wings are very dark brown or black with a white shoulder patch which varies in size (sometimes all black).
Female is uniformly sooty brown except for the white rump and outer tail feathers, and juvenile resembles female.
Similar species: Some confusion does occur between grey-morph males and Karoo Chats Emarginata schlegelii, and also between females and Ant-eating Chats.

Distribution
Near-endemic to southern Africa, occurring from south-west Angola through Namibia to South Africa.



Taxonomy
There are four subspecies regonized:
Oenanthe monticola monticola: S Botswana, S Namibia, South Africa (E to C Northern Province and W KwaZulu-Natal), W Swaziland and Lesotho.
Oenanthe monticola albipileata: Coastal Angola (Benguela escarpment)
Oenanthe monticola nigricauda: Angola (highlands of Huambo and s Cuanza Sul)
Oenanthe monticola atmorii: N Namibia (south to Damaraland)

Habitat
Mountainous and rocky terrain.

Diet
It eats insects and berries. It mainly eats invertebrates, often foraging on the ground and on rocks, plucking smaller prey leisurely but also chasing and stabbing larger invertebrates. It may also forage from a perch, pouncing on prey on the ground or hawking them in the air.

Breeding
It is monogamous. The nest is constructed solely by the female in about 4-14 days, consisting of a shallow cup set into an untidy platform built of a variety of materials, such as grass, woody stems, twigs, trapdoor spider webs, petioles, dried flowers, seeds, larval and pupal Lepidoptera cases, dried moss, pebbles, dung and snake skin. It is typically placed beneath a boulder, in a crevice set into a rock, wall or building. Egg-laying season is from June to March, peaking from September to November. The female lays 2-4 white eggs, which are incubated solely by the female for about 13 days, occasionally leaving the nest to forage while the male defends the territory. The chicks are brooded by the female at night for the first 10 days of their lives, with both adults feeding them on a diet of insects and Arthropods. They eventually leave the nest after about 14-17 days, becoming fully independent about a month later.

Call
The Mountain Wheatear’s song is a clear melodic whistle interspersed with harsh chatters.

Status
Near endemic. Common resident.

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586. Mountain Wheatear Myrmecocichla monticola

© Flutterby

© Michele Nel
Namibia, Klein Aus Vista

© nan
Male

© Amoli
Male

© Amoli
Marievale, Gauteng

Links:
Species text Sabap1
Sabap2

[Mel]

585. Northern Wheatear (formerly known as European Wheatear) Oenanthe oenanthe (Europese skaapwagter)
Order: Passeriformes. Family: Muscicapidae

Northern Wheatear.jpg (18.73 KiB) Viewed 1330 times

Description
About 14.5 to 16 cm in length with a white rump and basal tail patches with black centre and terminal band.
The breeding male shows grey upperparts, a buff throat, black wings and a white stripe above the eye.
The female is sandy-brown above and buff below. It’s got an eye patch and the wings are brown. In autumn male, female and juvenile are browner.

Taxonomy
Oenanthe oenanthe has four subspecies:
O. o. leucorhoa: North-eastern Canada to Greenland and Iceland; migrates to western Africa
O. o. oenanthe: British Isles to Mediterranean and Siberia; migrates to central Africa
O. o. libanotica: Southern Spain and Balearic Is. to Iran, Kazakhstan and Mongolia
O. o. seebohmi: Morocco to north-eastern Algeria; migrates to Mauritania (This might be a different species.)

Distribution
Europe: Breeds in most of Europe. These populations winter in Africa.
North America and Greenland: Populations breeding in Greenland and eastern Canada migrates to Africa via Western Europe. Populations breeding in Alaska and northwestern Canada migrate by a western route through Asia and the Middle East to eastern Africa south of the Sahara.
Asia: Breads across the entire northern half of the continent, migrating to sub-Saharan Africa.
Africa: Africa is important as the winter range for most populations.
It is a vagrant to southern Africa, with about 20 records in northern Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, southern Mozambique and north-eastern South Africa.

Habitat
Rocky tundra, barren slopes, hill pastures, sand dunes. In Africa, it prefers open Acacia savanna with short grass, burnt grassland, croplands, woodland with dense grass and weeds and cleared woodland with stumps.

Diet
Diet includes insects, some berries.

Breeding
Nest is on ground on dry tundra, usually in hole in a wall, under stones, or in old rabbit burrow. and is a cup of grass, twigs, weeds, lined with finer material such as moss, lichens, rootlets. The clutch is usually 5-6 pale blue eggs; unmarked, or with fine reddish brown dots, which are incubated by the female for 13-14 days.

Call
Mostly silent in southern Africa.

Status
Vagrant summer visitor.

[Mel]

585. Northern Wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe (Europese Skaapwagter)



© Dewi

© Dewi
Male in breeding-plumage

Links:
ARKive

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587. Capped Wheatear Oenanthe pileata (Hoeveldskaapwagter)
Order: Passeriformes. Family: Muscicapidae



Description
17-18 cm. It has a narrow white band across the forecrown, a white supercilium, black sides to face, white throat, and a broad black breast band. The rest of the underparts are white with buff on the flanks and lower belly. Like other wheatears, it has a distinctive tail pattern with a black feathers on the base and centre of the tail forming an inverted 'T' against the otherwise white rump. Its legs and pointed bill are black. It has a very upright posture at rest. Sexes alike.
Juveniles are brown above, spotted buff; off-white below with brown mottling on breast.
Similar species: Most similar to Northern Wheatear, but terminal black inverted 'V-shaped tail band broader.

Distribution: Africa south of the Sahel, from Kenya, southern DRC and Tanzania through Angola and Zambia to southern Africa. Here it is common across most of the region, excluding southern Mozambique and south-eastern South Africa.

Habitat
Semi-arid shrublands and dry grassy plains.

Movements and migrations
It is thought be resident in some areas and a breeding migrant in others. Generally, it is thought to breed in the higher rainfall areas of its distribution from about July-November, after which it migrates to more arid regions such as Namibia, the Kalahari Desert and the Karoo.

Diet
It mainly eats insects (especially ants and termites), supplemented with other invertebrates, fruit and seeds. It does most of its foraging from a perch, pouncing on prey on the ground or sometimes chasing and stabbing them.

Breeding
The nest is a cup built of leaves, grass and rootlets and lined with hair feathers and other fine material. It is typically placed up to around one metre below ground in a rodent burrow, although it has been recorded to use old metal railway sleepers as nest sites. Egg-laying season is from June-October, peaking from August-September. It lays 2-4, rarely 5 pale bluish or greenish white eggs.

Call
The Capped Wheatear’s song is a loud melodic warble interspersed with slurred chattering, and it has a chik-chik alarm call. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Common, localised resident (with both resident and breeding migrant populations over most of South Africa). Usually in pairs but often in small family groups in late breeding season.

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587. Capped Wheatear Oenanthe pileata (Hoeveldskaapwagter)

© Dewi

© Michele Nel

© Michele Nel
Juvenile

Links:
Species text Sabap1
Sabap2

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589. Familiar Chat Oenanthe familiaris (Gewone Spekvreter)
Order: Passeriformes. Family: Muscicapidae

Familiar Chat Oenanthe familiaris.jpg (31.98 KiB) Viewed 1310 times

Description
Drab bird, with brown to dark brown upperparts and underparts off-white to grey-brown. The rump and outer tail feathers are orange while the central tail feathers and the tip of the tail are dark brown. Bill, legs and feet are black; eyes are brown. Flicks its wings when at rest and also trembles its tail. Sexes are alike.
Upper parts from crown to back smoky brownish grey; ear coverts reddish brown. Rump, upper tail coverts and tail dull rufous-orange. Centre and tip of tail blackish brown, forming 'T'. Upper wing coverts greyish brown, broadly fringed buff. Flight feathers dark brown; outer web of outer primary, and inner secondaries and tertials fringed buff. Underwing coverts and axillaries white. Chin, throat and breast pale grey, grading to whitish belly and undertail coverts; flanks buffy. Bill black. Eyes brown. Legs and feet black.
Juvenile: Upper parts spotted buff, underparts with dusky feather tips, giving scaled appearance.
Similar species: Differs from Tractrac Chat and Sickle-winged Chat in being darker grey-brown below, with a richer chestnut rump and outer tail feathers.

Distribution
In patches across the Sahel, with a separate population stretching from Tanzania through southern DRC, Zambia, Angola and Malawi to southern Africa. Here it is common across Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, south-eastern Botswana and north-western Mozambique.

Habitat
Rocky and mountainous terrain.

Diet
It mainly eats invertebrates, which it catches using a variety of foraging techniques, often pouncing on prey on the ground from a perch or hawking insects aerially. It also gleans food from leaves and branches while hovering or chasing small arthropods on the ground; it may even forage in the intertidal zone, perching on kelps or seaweed. It often associates with Klipspringers, catching the insects they flush or even plucking ectoparasites from their skin.

Breeding
The Familiar Chat is monogamous. The nest is constructed in about 2-13 days, consisting of an open cup of dry grass, paper and string and lined with finer material, such as fluffy seeds, hair, feathers and wool. It is usually built on an untidy platform of earth clods, small stones and bits of bark, and it can be placed in a wide variety of sites. It most commonly uses cavities in walls, buildings or trees, old burrows of bee-eaters or other burrowing bird species, rock faces or an artificial structure. Egg-laying season is usually from June-April, peaking from August-December, although in arid regions it can breed at any time of year in response to rainfall. The female lays a clutch of two to four bright greenish-blue eggs that hatch after an incubation period of 13-15 days. The chicks are fed by both parents, leaving the nest after about 15-19 days.

Call
The song of the Familiar Chat is a soft garbled collection of peeps and chirps shek-shek, while the alarm call is a much louder and harsher chak-chak-chak.
http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Oenanthe-familiaris

Status
Common resident.

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589. Familiar Chat Oenanthe familiaris

© Flutterby

© BluTuna

© Sharifa & Duke

© Flutterby

© Flutterby

© ExFmem
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

© Mel

Links:
http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/589.pdf
http://sabap2.adu.org.za/spp_summary.ph ... &section=3

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603. Collared Palm-Thrush Cichladusa arquata
Order: Passeriformes Famly: Muscicapidae

1O4A2352.JPG (78.1 KiB) Viewed 1474 times

© Dindingwe
Chobe National Park


Description
The Collared Palm-Thrush has a height of 20 cms and weighs around 34 gms. The head is coloured red, brown while the bill is coloured black. The Cichladusa arquata has a grey, black coloured throat, olive, grey legs and a brown coloured back. The eyes are grey.

Food
It mainly eats insects supplemented with amphibians, doing most of its foraging in leaf litter, occasionally gleaning food from foliage.

Breeding and Nesting Habits
The nest is either a semi-circular or truncated cone-shaped structure, built of mud and grass roots and lined with finer grass or fibres stripped from palm leaves. Both sexes construct it, carrying material along the same route, repeatedly calling from perches along the way. It is typically attached to a hanging palm leaf, or at the point where the palm frond connects to the trunk; it may also be placed in the leafy foliage of a dragon-tree (Dracaena), under the eaves of a building or even in a working air-conditioning unit.
Egg-laying season is from October-March.
It lays 2-3 eggs, which are incubated by both adults for about 13 days.
The chicks are fed by both parents on a diet of invertebrates. such as caterpillars and grasshoppers, leaving the nest at 20 days old (in one observation).

Distribution and habitat
Occurs from southern Kenya, Tanzania and southern DRC through Malawi and Zambia to southern Africa. Here it occurs in central Mozambique and in patches along the border of Zimbabwe, generally preferring thickets with palm trees (such as Pheonix, Borassus and Hyphaene) near water. It may also occupy gardens and mixed bushwillow (Combretum) and Mopane (Colosphermum mopane) woodland around human settlements.

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603. Collared Palm-Thrush Cichladusa arquata

1O4A2323.JPG (71.79 KiB) Viewed 1472 times

© Dindingwe
Chobe National Park