Eurylaime du Cap

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.

Taxonomie

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:

Nom scientifique

Smithornis capensis

Autorité

(Smith, A, 1839)

Ordre

Passériformes

Famille

Calyptoménidés

Genre

Smithornis

Répartition et 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

Conservation

This bird has a large range and is common in several regions. In southern Africa it has a scattered distribution because of habitat fragmentation in the area. In general it is considered to be a least-concern species, but it is locally vulnerable due to loss of habitat.<p>This species lives in forests, dense woodland, and riparian thickets.

Tendance de la population

declining