Newsletter / Blog
2012-01-08 Aves bird of the week – African Paradise Flycatcher
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.
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