The African Paradise Flycatcher - Terpsiphone viridis - is a common resident breeder in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. It occurs across sub-Saharan Africa, absent only from very arid areas. In southern Africa, it is common from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana to large areas of South Africa. This species is usually found in open forests and savannah habitats.

Description

The adult male African Paradise Flycatcher has very long tail streamers. It has a black head, neck and underparts, and chestnut wings and tail. There is a prominent white wingbar. The female has a browner tint to the underparts and lacks the wingbar and tail streamers. Young birds are similar to the female but duller.

Call

The song is a loud “twee-tiddly-te-te.”  Territorial song of male can vary between individuals and especially geographically. Call a simple “zeet-zwayt.”  Alarm call, “zwayt,” shorter, higher pitched and raspier than call note

Food

It mainly eats invertebrates, such as moths, termite alates, beetles and flies, occasionally eating small berries. It uses a variety of foraging techniques, catching most of its prey on the wing.

Breeding

The nest is built by both sexes. It consists of a small cup of twigs and bark held together with spider web, decorated with lichen and often a "trail" of spider web and leaves dangling from its base. The breeding season peaks between October and December.

They lay 1 to 4 eggs, which are incubated by both sexes for between 11 to 19 days. The female often does most of the incubating at night. The chicks leave the nest at about 10 to 16 days. They stay in a family group with their parents until another clutch of eggs is laid, at which point they become fully independent.

Conservation Status – Least Concern

Not threatened, in fact common in large areas of sub-Saharan Africa.

Birdwatching

The paradise-flycatchers inhabit a range of habitat types, from rainforest to montane forest, woodlands, savanna, mangroves, riparian forest, deciduous forests and bamboo groves, some species will also move into gardens and cultivated habitat.