The Herero chat (''Namibornis herero'') is a species of

passerine bird A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Muscicapidae The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica'') and north ...

, the chats and Old World flycatchers. It is the only species in the

monospecific genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

''Namibornis'' and it has a restricted range in southwestern Africa.

Taxonomy

The Herero chat was first formally described in 1931 as ''Bradornis herero'' by the Italian-born American

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

Rodolphe Meyer de Schauensee Rodolphe Meyer de Schauensee (; January 4, 1901 – April 24, 1984) was a Swiss-American ornithologist. Early life and education Meyer de Schauensee was born January 4, 1901 in Rome, Italy, one of two sons, to Baron Frederick Meyer de Schauens ...

with its type locality given as

Karibib Karibib () is a town in the Erongo Region of western Namibia. It has 8,434 inhabitants. Karibib is the district capital of the Karibib Constituency, Karibib electoral constituency. It is situated on the Khan River, halfway between Windhoek and S ...

Damaraland Damaraland was a name given to the north-central part of South West Africa, which later became Namibia, inhabited by the Damaras. It was bordered roughly by Ovamboland in the north, the Namib Desert in the west, the Kalahari Desert in the e ...

in Namibia. In 1935 R. D. Bradfield proposed the new genus ''Namibornis'' for this species, noting that he thought it was more closely related to ''

Cossypha ''Cossypha'' are small insectivorous birds, with most species called robin-chats. They were formerly in the thrush (bird), thrush family Turdidae, but are now more often treated as part of the Old World flycatcher Muscicapidae. These are African ...

'' than '' Bradornis''.(Originally published privately as a leaflet in 1935) The Herero chat is classified within the Tribe Muscicapini in subfamily Muscicapinae, meaning that it is an old World flycatcher rather than a chat and is closer to ''Bradornis'' than ''Cossypha'', within the family Muscicapidae.

Etymology

The Hereo chat has the genus name ''Namibornis'' which suffixes ''ornis'' meaning "bird" onto Namib, i.e. the

Namib Desert The Namib ( ; ) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namibia, and northwest South Africa, extending southward from the Carunjamba Ri ...

. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''herero'', is the name of the

Herero people The Herero () are a Bantu people, Bantu ethnic group inhabiting parts of Southern Africa. 178,987 Namibians identified as Ovaherero in the 2023 census. They speak Otjiherero, a Bantu language. Though the Herero primarily reside in Namibia, there ...

who live in the Namib Desert.

Description

The Herero chat has a length of . The adults have a blackish mask, similar to that of a shrike with a wide white

supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also k ...

and a white throat. The upperparts are brown, warmer more red in colour on the rump and tail, although the central feathers of the tail are blackish-brown. The underparts are whitish, sometimes washed brown with faint dark streaks.

Distribution and habitat

The Herero chat is found in southwestern Africa where its range corresponds to the

Namibian savanna woodlands The Namibian savanna woodlands, also known as the Namib escarpment woodlands, are the deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion of Namibia and Angola. Geography They extend north and south from southwestern Angola to central Namibia, east of the co ...

, from the far southwest of Angola through western Namibia as far south as the

Naukluft Mountains The Naukluft Mountains (Afrikaans and German: ''Naukluftberge'') are a mountain range in central Namibia. The southern part of the mountain range forms the easternmost part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park. The northern mountains are occupied ...

. This is a locally common species found on

inselberg An inselberg or monadnock ( ) is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa, a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, an ...

s and escarpments with scattered ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...

'', ''

Maerua ''Maerua'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Capparaceae. It includes 70 species of shrubs and small trees with its centre of diversity in Africa, though some species extend their range as far north as the Levant, and as far east as th ...

'' shrubs, ''

Commiphora ''Commiphora'' is the most species-rich genus of flowering plants in the frankincense and myrrh family, Burseraceae. The genus contains approximately 190 species of shrubs and trees, which are distributed throughout the (sub-) tropical regions of A ...

'' and ''

Terminalia Terminalia may refer to: * Terminalia (festival) Terminalia () was an ancient Roman festival in honour of the god Terminus, who presided over boundaries. His statue was merely a stone or post stuck in the ground to distinguish between propert ...

'' trees, particularly where the vegetation follows drainage lines.

Biology

The Herero chat is mainly

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 ...

with most of its food consisting of ants and termites, as well as grasshoppers and crickets, beetles and spiders. It will also feed on the berries of ''

Commiphora saxicola ''Commiphora saxicola'', also known as rock corkwood, is a shrub species in the genus ''Commiphora'' endemic to, and protected in, Namibia. It grows on rock slopes and in gravel plains in an area reaching from the Kunene River The Cunene (Port ...

'', as well as seeds. Some foraging is done from shady perches with the prey pounced on from above, they also occasionally hawk insects in the air and forage on the ground at the bases of trees and bushes, sometimes digging in the earth to expose prey. Both sexes participate in the construction of the nest, taking about 3 or 4 days. They start by putting grass leaves into a crack or hole in a tree or in a fork. They then include rootlets, thin strips of bark and other plant fibres in the structure before both the male and female mould the nest with their bodies into an open cup. A typical location for the nest is at the base of a tree's canopy particularly if the tree is close to a rock outcrop, at the base of a slope or close to drainage lines. The eggs are laid in February and March, with laying often coinciding with rainfall. The clutch is 2 or 3 eggs with the female being responsible for most of the incubation. Incubation lasts for around 16 days, during which the female eats a lot of berries of ''Commiphora saxicola''. Both parents feed the chicks which fledge in 12 to 16 days. Following fledging the juveniles remain with the adults until they become fully independent between 3 and 5 months after fledging.

References

* Del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Christie D. (editors). (2006). ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. ...

''. Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers. Lynx Edicions. . {{Taxonbar, from=Q1585895

Herero chat The Herero chat (''Namibornis herero'') is a species of passerine bird belonging to the family Muscicapidae, the chats and Old World flycatchers. It is the only species in the monospecific genus ''Namibornis'' and it has a restricted range in so ...

Birds of Southern Africa Fauna of Namibia

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN