Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher
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The blue-mantled crested flycatcher or African crested flycatcher (''Trochocercus cyanomelas'') is a species of
bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...
in the family
Monarchidae The monarchs or monarch flycatchers (family Monarchidae) comprise a family of over 100 passerine birds which includes shrikebills, paradise flycatchers, and Grallina, magpie-larks. Monarchids are small insectivore, insectivorous songbirds with l ...
found in eastern and south-eastern Africa. Its natural
habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...
s are subtropical or tropical dry
forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...
s and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.


Taxonomy and systematics

The blue-mantled crested flycatcher was originally described in the genus ''
Muscicapa ''Muscicapa'' is a genus of passerine birds belonging to the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae, and therein to the typical flycatchers of subfamily Muscicapinae. They are widespread across Europe, Africa and Asia with most species occurri ...
'' and some authorities have also classified it in the genus ''
Terpsiphone The paradise flycatchers (''Terpsiphone'') are a genus of birds in the family Monarchidae. The genus ranges across Africa and Asia, as well as a number of islands. A few species are migratory, but the majority are resident. The most telling char ...
''. Alternate names for the blue-mantled crested flycatcher include blue-mantled flycatcher, blue-mantled paradise-flycatcher, Cape crested-flycatcher and crested flycatcher.


Subspecies

Five subspecies are recognized: * ''T. c. vivax'' - Neave, 1909: Found from Uganda and north-western Tanzania to south-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and northern and western Zambia * East African crested flycatcher (''T. c. bivittatus'') -
Reichenow Anton Reichenow (1 August 1847 in Charlottenburg – 6 July 1941 in Hamburg) was a German ornithologist and herpetologist. Reichenow was the son-in-law of Jean Cabanis, and worked at the Natural History Museum of Berlin from 1874 to 1921. He was ...
, 1879
: Originally described as a separate species. Found from Somalia to eastern Tanzania * ''T. c. megalolophus'' -
Swynnerton Swynnerton is a village and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. It lies in the Borough of Stafford, and at the 2001 census had a population of 4,233, increasing to 4,453 at the 2011 Census. Swynnerton is listed in the Domesday Book identify ...
, 1907
: Originally described as a separate species. Found from Malawi and northern Mozambique to Zimbabwe and eastern KwaZulu-Natal (north-eastern South Africa) * ''T. c. segregus'' - Clancey, 1975: Found in eastern Northern Province and western KwaZulu-Natal (north-eastern South Africa) * ''T. c. cyanomelas'' - (
Vieillot Louis Pierre Vieillot (10 May 1748, Yvetot – 24 August 1830, Sotteville-lès-Rouen) was a French ornithologist. Vieillot is the author of the first scientific descriptions and Linnaean names of a number of birds, including species he collecte ...
, 1818)
: Found in south and south-eastern South Africa


Diet

Like all members of the monarch flycatcher family, the blue-mantled crested flycatcher is
insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant which eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores we ...
.


References


External links

* Blue-mantled crested flycatcher
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
blue-mantled crested flycatcher Birds of Central Africa Birds of East Africa Birds of Southern Africa blue-mantled crested flycatcher Taxa named by Louis Pierre Vieillot Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Monarchidae-stub