Robin Chats (Genus of Cossypha)
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| A Cape Robin Chat photographed at Inthaka Island, in the Western Coast area of Cape Town in the Western Cape. |
Cape Robin Chat
Chorister Robin Chat
Red Capped Robin Chat
White Throated Robin Chat
White Browed Robin Chat
Olive Flanked Robin Chat
Grey Winged Robin Chat
Snowy Crowned Robin Chat
White Headed Robin Chat(VU)
Blue Shouldered Robin Chat
Archer's Robin Chat
Ruppel's Robin Chat
White Crowned Robin Chat
Mountain Robin Chat
2 of the 14 Robin Chat species can be found in the Western Cape.
5 of the 14 Robin Chat species can be found in South Africa.
All 14 of the Robin Chat species can be found in Africa, in fact the only places in the world where you will find species of Robin Chats are in Sub Saharan Africa.
The best places to find Robin Chats are probably in South Africa (Kwazulu Natal and Mpumalanga), Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania.
The robin-chats are small insectivorous birds in the genera Cossyphicula and Cossypha. They were formerly in the thrush family Turdidae, but are now more often treated as part of the Old World flycatcher Muscicapidae.
These are African woodland dwelling species, but some have become adapted to sites around human habitation.
The only species of the 14 I have photographed is the Cape Robin Chat, mainly because they are the only ones that can be found in the Cape Town area, where I live. The only other species of Robin Chat that can also be found in the Western Cape is the Chorister Robin Chat. The closest area to where I stay where I can possibly photograph the Chorister Robin Chat is George/Oudtshoorn, where the Outeniqua Nature Reserve seems to be the best bet. I will surely update this post when I increase my count of Robin Chats photographed.
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| A Cape Robin Chat photographed at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town in the Western Cape. |
It is a mainly resident breeder in eastern and southern Africa, but some migrate to lower, warmer regions in winter. It occurs from South Sudan southwards to Uganda, the DRC, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho. It is a common species at Afromontane forest edges and in forest scrub, fynbos, karoo, plantations, gardens and parks. In dry areas they are restricted to thickets that fringe water courses.
The Cape robin-chat is 16–17 cm long. The adult’s upper-parts are grey, and the face sides in front of and behind the eye are blackish, and is separated from the crown by a white supercilium. The chin, throat, central breast, rump, under-tail coverts and outer tail feathers are orange. The breast is deeper orange in colour during the non-breeding season. The central tail feathers are greyish-brown and the belly is pale grey.
The black bill is short and straight, with a slightly down-curved upper mandible. The legs and feet are pinkish grey, and the eye is brown. The sexes are similar, but the juvenile is dark brown above and buff below, heavily marked with buff on the upperparts and grey-brown on the breast.
The Cape robin-chat has a harsh, low, trisyllabic alarm note "WA-dur-dra". The Afrikaans name for this species, “JAN Frederik” gives the rhythm of this call, if the syllables of the latter part are run together. From first light they usually sing from within, but near the top of a tree or bush, and at times uninterrupted for an hour or more. Singing may continue late into the evening, in pitch darkness. The clear and ringing songs are delivered in phrases, sometimes simultaneously by competing males. It consists of variable short passages of musical notes, cherooo-weet-weet-weeeet, which always starts with a low, slurred whistle.
It forages close to or on ground level. It prefers the cover of dense vegetation, but is not very shy. Invertebrates, small frogs and lizards are obtained in scrub or on leaf litter. In addition fruit and seeds are plucked from plants or eaten on the ground. Occasionally an insect may be hawked in the air, or invertebrates may be gleaned from leaves, branches or rocks.
They are monogamous and highly territorial nesters. The territory comprises a fraction of a hectare, but this varies greatly depending on the habitat. The nest site is within 5 feet (regularly 0 – 2 feet) from the ground. It may be placed against a tree trunk, or on a broken stump in drift wood, and is often screened by overhanging vegetation.
It normally nests from June to November in the Western Cape and August to January elsewhere, but may nest at any time of the year. One of the pair will dowse its belly feathers and use the moisture to soften nesting material for easy shaping of the nest, while the other will bring the material to the nest. The female builds the cup-shaped nest of coarse vegetation, lined with animal hair, rootlets and other fine material. It is completed in 6 to 14 days, except when a nest is refurbished for a second clutch.
Two to three eggs are laid at one day intervals, and are incubated by the female for 14 to 19 days. The eggs measure 13 x 17 mm, and may be off-white, pinkish or pale blue, but always flecked with rusty brown, especially near the thicker end. Both parents will feed the nestlings during the subsequent 14 to 18 days, and for 5 to 7 weeks after they leave nest. The Cape robin-chat is a host of the Red-chested cuckoo.
Below is a map of the distribution of the Cape Robin Chat.
Among the places where I have seen the Cape Robin Chat are:
Val de Vie (where I stay), Paarl, Western Cape,
Paarl Bird Sanctuary, Paarl, Western Cape,
Limietberg Nature Reserve, Wellington, Western Cape,
Helderberg Nature Reserve, Helderberg, Western Cape,
Rondevlei Nature Reserve, False Bay, Western Cape.
So my next challenge for this specific genus will be to spot the Chorister Robin Chat. The Chorister Robin Chat has the following distribution, and the closest area to where I stay is the eastern parts of the Western Cape, probably within the Outeniqua Nature Reserve.
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