African Broadbill
Smithornis capensis
Small, chunky, brown-and-white bird that shows a very broad bill when seen from below. Found in forest and thick woodland. It is shy and inconspicuous except when displaying. Displaying birds fly in a tight circle, with the white rump feathers puffed out, making a loud braying sound by clapping the wings together at incredibly fast speed. Similar to Rufous-sided and Gray-headed broadbills, but lacks rufous on the breast.
Identification
The African broadbill is a boldly streaked, largely brown, stocky flycatcher like bird. They have dark crowns which are black in the males and grey in the females of the eastern subspecies and blackish in both sexes of the subspecies S.c. meinertzhageni. The upperparts are mainly olive-brown with black streaks, the bases of the feathers on the lower back and rump are white and are hidden when the bird is at rest. The underparts are buff or creamy-white with black streaks on the flanks and the breast. There is subspecific variation with S.c. meinertzhageni and S.c. suahelicus being whiter below with thicker streaks than, for example S.c. medianus. It measures 12–14 cm (4.7–5.5 in) in length and in South Africa males weighed 21–26.9 g (0.74–0.95 oz) and females 17.4–27.5 g (0.61–0.97 oz).<p>The African broadbill produces a very loud sound which has been compared to an old fashioned car horn. It is loud, vibrating "Prrrrup" which is produced during a display flight, and it may be preceded by softer more plaintive "tui-tui-tui" calls, which are also sometimes made without the car horn call.<p>Unusually, the call of the African broadbill, like other Smithornis birds, is produced by the vibration of its wings during flight, the sound being produced by the sixth and seventh primary feathers.
Taxonomy
The generic name honours the Scottish zoologist and explorer Dr Andrew Smith who described this species as Platyrhynchus capensis in 1839.<p>There are currently nine recognised subspecies and they are listed below with their distributions from north west to south:
- Scientific name
- Smithornis capensis
- Authority
- (Smith, A, 1839)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Calyptomenidae
- Genus
- Smithornis
Range and habitat
The African broadbill is native to Africa, especially the southeastern part of the continent. There are two separate allopatric distributions, one rather disjunct distribution in coastal West Africa from Sierra Leone in the west eastwards to the Central African Republic and south to Gabon and the northern Congo. The main distribution covers southern and eastern Africa from Kenya south to KwaZulu Natal. The African broadbill occurs in the middle stratum of evergreen or lowland forest, dense deciduous thickets or other dense woodland, including riverine gallery forest.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Three-banded Courser
Rhinoptilus cinctus
Elegant, cryptic, long-legged, upland shorebird. Shows a dark upperwing and a largely white underwing in flight. Found in savanna and woodland, including some miombo. Nocturnal species that spends the day roosting under a thick bush. Calls at night with a repeated metallic “chik.” Somewhat similar to Double-banded Courser but is nocturnal and has a more complex and striped head and chest pattern.
Ribbon-tailed Drongo
Dicrurus megarhynchus
A large, unmistakable, entirely black drongo with an extremely long, bulbous-ended wavy tail. Prefers primary forest from lowlands up to 1800 meters of elevation. Voice is an endless reel of varied fluty, rasping, scolding, twanging notes.
Rufous-browed Chat-Tyrant
Ochthoeca superciliosa
Handsome flycatcher found only in the high Andes of Venezuela. Plumage is quite distinctive with bright cinnamon belly, eyebrows, and wing stripes. Inhabits elfin forest and scrub near or above tree line. Typically encountered in pairs that perch in the open and give sharp “chep” calls and as well as raucous chatters. Formerly treated as a subspecies of Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant, which only barely reaches over Colombian border into Venezuela and does not overlap with Rufous-browed.
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