Cape robin-chat

Cape robin-chat
In Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Singing at dawn before sunrise
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Muscicapidae
Genus: Dessonornis
Species:
D. caffer
Binomial name
Dessonornis caffer
(Linnaeus, 1771)
  range[2][3][4][5]

The Cape robin-chat (Dessonornis caffer) is a small passerine bird of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It has a disjunct range from South Sudan to South Africa.[3]

The locally familiar and confiding species[6] has colonized and benefited from a range of man-altered habitats, including city suburbs and farmstead woodlots.[7] It is an accomplished songster like other robin-chats, but is rather less colourful than most, and frequents either drier settings or higher altitudes. It forages in the proximity of cover, in the open or in fairly well-lit environments. Its distribution resembles that of the karoo–olive complex of thrushes, but it prefers the bracken-briar fringes of Afromontane forest,[7] and does not enter far into forest proper.[8] It is altitudinally segregated from the red-capped robin-chat,[8] and is less of a skulker.

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2019) [amended version of 2016 assessment]. "Dessonornis caffer". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2019: e.T22709791A155508038. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-3.RLTS.T22709791A155508038.en. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference kei was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Chittenden, H.; et al. (2012). Roberts geographic variation of southern African birds. Cape Town: JVBBF. pp. 202–203. ISBN 978-1-920602-00-0.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference zim was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Baker, N. "Cape Robinchat". Preliminary Map. Tanzania Bird Atlas. Archived from the original on 21 March 2016. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  6. ^ Gill, E. Leonard; Winterbottom, J.M. (revised) (1975). A first guide to South African birds (7th ed.). Cape Town: Maskew Miller. pp. 63–66. ISBN 0623005964.
  7. ^ a b Oatley, T. B. "SABAP1: Cape Robin" (PDF). sabap2.adu.org.za. SABAP. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  8. ^ a b Irwin, Michael P. Stuart (1981). The birds of Zimbabwe. Salisbury, Zimbabwe: Quest Pub. pp. 271–272. ISBN 0-86925-156-2.