Northern black flycatcher

Last updated

Northern black flycatcher
Melaenornis edolioides -Banjul, Gambia-8.jpg
M. e. elioides
Banjul, Gambia
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Muscicapidae
Genus: Melaenornis
Species:
M. edolioides
Binomial name
Melaenornis edolioides
(Swainson, 1837)
M. e. lugubris
Kakamega Forest, Kenya Northern black flycatcher (Melaenornis edolioides lugubris).jpg
M. e. lugubris
Kakamega Forest, Kenya

The northern black flycatcher (Melaenornis edolioides) is a small passerine bird in the flycatcher family, Muscicapidae.

Contents

Range

This is an insectivorous species which is a resident breeder in tropical Africa from Senegal to Ethiopia and south to Zaire and Tanzania.

Habitat

The northern black flycatcher is found in moist wooded areas and cultivation. It nests in a hole or reuses the old nest of another species, and lays two or three eggs. Breeding takes place in the wet season.

Description

The northern black flycatcher is 20 centimetres (7.9 in) long. It is a large upright long-tailed flycatcher. The adult is uniformly black. Juveniles are blackish-brown with buff scaling.

The long square-ended tail helps to distinguish this species from two other all-black insectivores, the fork-tailed drongo and the shorter-tailed and red-eyed common square-tailed drongo.

Song

This flycatcher has a simple musical song and a thin tsee-whee call.

Related Research Articles

Fork-tailed drongo Species of bird

The fork-tailed drongo, also called the common drongo, African drongo, or savanna drongo, is a small bird that can be found across the Afrotropical realm of continental Africa, excepting the Congolian rainforests and Upper Guinean forests. They are a passerine, part of the family, Dicruridae, with four recognized subspecies. Physically this species is characterized with a narrow fork-shaped tail, red-brownish eyes, and black plumage throughout all of his body. As an omnivorous species, its diet consists of small insects, composing of butterflies, grasshoppers and beetles, besides fruit, including those of Azadirachta indica and Moringa oleifera.

Common square-tailed drongo Species of bird

The common square-tailed drongo, formerly the square-tailed drongo, is a passerine bird in the family Dicruridae. It is a common resident breeder in parts of southern Africa.

Black drongo Species of bird

The black drongo is a small Asian passerine bird of the drongo family Dicruridae. It is a common resident breeder in much of tropical southern Asia from southwest Iran through India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka east to southern China and Indonesia and accidental visitor of Japan. It is an all black bird with a distinctive forked tail and measures 28 cm (11 in) in length. It feeds on insects, and is common in open agricultural areas and light forest throughout its range, perching conspicuously on a bare perch or along power or telephone lines.

African paradise flycatcher Species of bird

The African paradise flycatcher is a medium-sized passerine bird. The two central tail feathers of the male are extended into streamers that commonly are more than twice as long as the body. The female tail feathers are of moderate length and without streamers. The upper parts of the male body, wings, and tail are boldly coloured in chestnut or rusty shades, but the underparts and the head are variably grey to blue-gray, with the head of the mature male being darker, commonly glossy black with greenish highlights. The beak and other bare areas, including a wattle ring round the eye, match the colour of the surrounding feathers. The female coloration is similar, though not so showy and glossy and with the head paler.

Red-bellied paradise flycatcher Species of bird

The red-bellied paradise flycatcher, also known as the black-headed paradise flycatcher, is a medium-sized passerine bird of the family of monarch flycatchers. It is native to intra-tropical forests of Africa. The male bird is about 17 cm (7 in) long and has a black head, a mainly chestnut body, and a tail with streamers nearly twice as long as the body. The colouring is somewhat variable across the bird's range. Both females and juveniles lack the tail streamers and are a duller brown colour. It is closely related to the African paradise flycatcher, and the two can hybridise.

Indian paradise flycatcher Species of bird

The Indian paradise flycatcher is a medium-sized passerine bird native to Asia, where it is widely distributed. As the global population is considered stable, it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2004. It is native to the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and Myanmar.

Scissor-tailed flycatcher Species of bird

The scissor-tailed flycatcher, also known as the Texas bird-of-paradise and swallow-tailed flycatcher, is a long-tailed bird of the genus Tyrannus, whose members are collectively referred to as kingbirds. The kingbirds are a group of large insectivorous (insect-eating) birds in the tyrant flycatcher (Tyrannidae) family. The scissor-tailed flycatcher is found in North and Central America.

Grey-capped flycatcher Species of bird

The grey-capped flycatcher is a passerine bird, a member of the large tyrant flycatcher family.

Fiscal flycatcher Species of bird

The fiscal flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family. It is a resident breeder in Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland, and a vagrant to Namibia.

Southern black flycatcher Species of bird

The southern black flycatcher is a small passerine bird of the genus Melaenornis in the flycatcher family, Muscicapidae, native to open and lightly wooded areas of eastern and southern Africa.

Pied monarch Species of bird

The pied monarch is a species of bird in the monarch-flycatcher family, Monarchidae. It is endemic to coastal Queensland in Australia.

Abyssinian slaty flycatcher Species of bird

The Abyssinian slaty flycatcher, also known as Abyssinian flycatcher, Abyssinian black flycatcher or Abyssinian chocolate flycatcher, is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae, the Old World flycatchers. It is often placed in the genus Dioptrornis. It is native to Africa, where it occurs in Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Leaden flycatcher Species of bird

The leaden flycatcher is a species of passerine bird in the family Monarchidae. Around 15 cm (6 in) in length, the male is lustrous azure with white underparts, while the female possesses leaden head, mantle and back and rufous throat and breast. It is found in eastern and northern Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical mangrove forests in the northern parts of its range, in the south and inland it is eucalypt woodland.

References

  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Melaenornis edolioides". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T22709079A94191295. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22709079A94191295.en . Retrieved 12 November 2021.