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Cape Robin-Chat

Cossypha caffra

Description:

The Cape Robin-Chat is 16–17 cm long. The adult’s upper-parts are grey, and the face sides in front of and behind the eye are blackish, separated from the crown by a white supercilium. The chin, throat, central breast, rump, under-tail coverts and outer tail feathers are orange, and the central tail feathers are greyish-brown. The belly is pale grey. The black bill is short and straight, with a slightly down-curved upper mandible. The legs and feet are pinkish grey, and the eye is brown. The sexes are similar, but the juvenile is dark brown above and buff below, heavily marked with buff on the upperparts and grey-brown on th breast. The Cape Robin-Chat has a harsh, low trisyllabic alarm note "WA-dur-dra". The Afrikaans name name for this species, “JAN Frederik” gives the rhythm of this call, if the syllables of the latter part are run together. The song consists of variable short passages of musical notes, always starts with low slurred whistle cherooo-weet-weet-weeeet.

Habitat:

It is a mainly resident breeder in southern and eastern Africa from Kenya south to Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland. It is a common species at forest edges and in scrub, fynbos, karoo, plantations, gardens and parks.

Notes:

He was having a drink in the swimming pool. Was spotted in the Franschhoek mountains.

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1 Comment

alicelongmartin
alicelongmartin 11 years ago

Nice Bird!

Niel
Spotted by
Niel

Stellenbosch Local Municipality, Western Cape, South Africa

Spotted on Feb 25, 2012
Submitted on Apr 14, 2012

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