Karoo Chat
Emarginata schlegelii
A large, slender, long-tailed gray chat with bold white outer tail feathers that frame the black tail. South African races are slaty gray with grayish rumps, while Namibian races are smaller and paler with whitish rumps. This is a bold chat that perches conspicuously on fences and shrubs throughout arid rangelands, dropping to the ground to forage before flying strongly and occasionally distantly to another perch, showing the diagnostic tail pattern. The Tractrac Chat is shorter-tailed, prefers hyper-arid barren environments, and has a distinctive V-shaped black wedge in the tail that the Karoo Chat lacks.
Identification
The Karoo chat is 16–18 cm long and weighs around 32 gm. Its upperparts are grey, but it has a rufous patch behind the eye, and the tail is black with white outer feathers. Its underparts are white, the short straight bill, legs and feet are black and the eye is dark. The sexes are similar, but the juvenile is spotted with buff and has scaly underparts..<p>This species is paler than the similar grey form of the female mountain wheatear, from which it also differs in having a grey (not white) rump and completely white outer tail feathers. Its larger size and all-white outer tail feathers prevent confusion with the tractrac or sickle-winged chats.<p>The Karoo chat has chak-chak and trrat-trrat calls.
Taxonomy
The first formal description of the Karoo chat was by the Swedish naturalist Johan August Wahlberg in 1855 under the binomial name Erithacus schlegelii. The species was subsequently placed in the genus Cercomela introduced by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1856. It was moved to its current genus, Emarginata, after molecular phylogenetic studies published in 2010 and 2012 found that Cercomela was polyphyletic. The specific name commemorates the German ornithologist, Hermann Schlegel.<p>There are four subspecies:
- Scientific name
- Emarginata schlegelii
- Authority
- (Wahlberg, 1855)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Muscicapidae
- Genus
- Emarginata
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Red-chested Buttonquail
Turnix pyrrhothorax
Small, dark, secretive buttonquail with pale eye, found in dense grassland habitats, where most commonly observed exploding from cover and flying rapidly away. In flight, note the fairly uniformly dark upperparts, with less contrast between flight feathers and coverts than in most other buttonquail. Adult female has rich rusty-orange chest; male paler, with white chin. Call is a repeated "oom-oom-oom-oom," with end of each note ascending in pitch.
Socotra Sunbird
Chalcomitra balfouri
Odd and distinctive sunbird in which both sexes have a female-like plumage. Shows brown upperparts, pale underparts with black scaling and streaking, a black throat, and white whiskers. There are small yellow tufts at the shoulders, which can be hidden. Found in habitats with trees and bushes on the island of Socotra. Gives a twittering song, and also sometimes mimics other bird species.
Red-legged Honeycreeper
Cyanerpes cyaneus
Small, warbler-like tanager of tropical lowlands. Favors forest edge, woodland, and semi-open areas with taller trees. Often occurs in small groups, sometimes larger flocks, usually in the canopy of flowering trees, where it probes for nectar with its long bill. Red legs are bright on male, dullest on young birds. Male is blue in breeding plumage, with a turquoise cap; female and non-breeding male are greenish overall with faint streaking on the chest. In flight, the underside of the wings flash bright sulphur-yellow.
Start Your Bird Watching Journey
Identify a bird outdoors and keep the field guide close for your next observation.