The red-capped robin-chat or Natal robin (''Cossypha natalensis'') is a species of passerine bird 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 ...

. This species is found in central and eastern

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

Taxonomy

The red-capped robin-chat was first formally described in 1840 by the Scottish

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

and

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

Andrew Smith with its type locality given as near

Port Natal Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South Africa, on the Natal Bay o ...

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

, South Africa. This species is a member of the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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 ...

'' which is classified within the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Erithacinae of the large

passerine 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 ...

family Muscicapidae, the chats and Old World flycatchers. However, it has been argued that the name of this clade should be Cossyphinae, as this was proposed by

Nicholas Aylward Vigors Nicholas Aylward Vigors (1785 – 26 October 1840) was an Ireland, Irish zoologist and politician. He popularized the classification of birds on the basis of the quinarian system. Early life Vigors was born at Old Leighlin, County Carlow, in 1 ...

in 1825 and so predates

Gray Grey (more frequent in British English) or gray (more frequent in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning that it has no chroma. It is the color of a cloud-covered s ...

's 1846 Erithacinae.

Subspecies

The red-capped robin-chat is a polytypic species with 3

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

: * ''Cossypha natalensis natalensis'' (Smith, 1840) - eastern South Africa (

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

to KwaZulu-Natal) * ''Cossypha natalensis larischi''

Meise Meise () is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in the Flemish region of Belgium. The municipality comprises the towns of Meise proper and Wolvertem (a ''deelgemeente''), and several smaller villages like Sint-Brixius-Rode, Oppem, ...

, 1958 - Nigeria to northern Angola * ''Cossypha natalensis intensa'' Mearns, 1913 - southeastern Central African Republic, South Sudan, southwestern Ethiopia, and southern Somalia south to

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

Etymology

The red-capped robin-chat had the genus name ''Cossypha'', a name introduced by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors in 1825. The word comes from the

Classical Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archa ...

''kossuphos'' for a blackbird or thrush. 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 ...

''natalensis'' refers to the type locality.

Description

left, 250px, Individual in Ithala Game Reserve, showing brightly coloured underpart plumage The red-capped robin-chat is a relatively large species of robin-chat with a length of . The adults have an orange-rufous head, face, breast and belly with a large dark eye. The overall appearance of the head is of anplain face with the dark eye in its centre. The wings and upperparts of the body are dusky and these contrast with the dark central and bright orange outer tail feathers. The juveniles are a mottled dark brown with rufous-brown spots on the head.The upper and underparts have rufous spots, these become larger towards the belly.

Subspecific variation

The above applies to the nominate subspecies, ''C. n. natalensis''. The subspecies ''C. c. intensa'' is similar to the nominate but the crown and nape are a brighter reddish colour, with no olive tones, and is slightly paler orange-rufous on the head and underparts. The subspecies ''C.c. larischii'' has slightly darker upperparts than the nominate, particularly on the crown and nape and has a lightly shorter tail.

Vocalisations

The red-capped robin chat has a plaintive, tremulous contact call and has other fluty vocalisations, similar to those of other robin-chats. The song is a long series of melodious whistles with a lot of mimicry included.

Distribution and habitat

Range

The red-capped robin-chat has a wide distribution in eastern and southern Africa. ''C. n. larischi'' is found in central and south eastern Nigeria, near

Yaoundé Yaoundé (; , ) is the Capital city, capital city of Cameroon. It has a population of more than 2.8 million which makes it the second-largest city in the country after the port city Douala. It lies in the Centre Region (Cameroon), Centre Region o ...

in Cameroon, southwestern Gabon and southern Republic of Congo as far north as the Téké Plateau and south into northern and western Angola. The most wodespread sunspecies is ''C.n. intensa'' which occurs as far north as South Sudan, southwestern Ethiopia and southern Somalia south to northwestern and eastern Zimbabwe and northern and central Mozambique where it intergrades with the nominate subso=pecies which is found in southern Mozambique, Eswatini and northeastern and southeastern South Africa in

Limpopo Province Limpopo () is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a group of Tsonga settlers ...

, KwaZulu-Natal as far as the Transkei District in the

Habitat

The red-capped robin-chat is a bird that lives in the undergrowth of evergreen forest, this includes coastal forests, riverine forests, sand forests and highland forests below the cloud forest level. During the summer it expands its range to include well vegetated gullies and tickets within drier habitats such as

bushveld The Bushveld (from Afrikaans: ''bosveld'', Afrikaans: ''bos'' 'bush' and ) is a Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa. The ecoregion straddles the Tropic of Capricorn ...

and

thornveld Veld ( or , Afrikaans and Dutch: ''veld'', field), also spelled veldt, is a type of wide-open, rural landscape in Southern Africa. Particularly, it is a flat area covered in grass or low scrub, especially in the countries of South Africa, ...

. In KwaZulu-Natal this is a common species of gardens where it lives in shrubberies.

Movements

The red-capped robin-chat is both sedentary and partially migratory, with 1st calendar year birds being nomadic. The northern most populations in South Sudan are very rare in the period between December and February, returning to their breeding territories in early March. It is a dry season visitor to coastal areas in Tanzania and Mozambique, while in Zimbabwe it is absent from the higher parts of the

Eastern Highlands :''"Eastern Highlands" also refers to Eastern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea, and part of the Great Dividing Range, Australia.'' The Eastern Highlands, also known as the Manica Highlands, is a mountain range on the border of Zimbabwe ...

between March and late August. In many areas it is known as a nomadic, dry season visitor with sporadic and fleeting appearances.

Vagrants Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, ...

have been recorded from Botswana, the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

and

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( ; ) was an independent Boer-ruled sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Em ...

Biology

The red-capped robin chat buods a nest that is an open cup set into a platform, the materials used to create the nest are highly variable and will often include dead leaves, roots, tendrils, twigs, dry grass and flowerheads, lichen, moss, bark fragments or even

hippopotamus The hippopotamus (''Hippopotamus amphibius;'' ; : hippopotamuses), often shortened to hippo (: hippos), further qualified as the common hippopotamus, Nile hippopotamus and river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Sahar ...

droppings. It is usually situated in a hollow tree stump, in a rotten hole or crack in a branch and sometimes in a cavity in a dry side of a gully. The nest is built by both sexes. This is a monogamous and territorial species and the breeding season varies across its range, normally breeding during the rainy season. The territory is vigorously defended against conspecifics. It is known to hybridise with the

chorister robin-chat The chorister robin-chat (''Cossypha dichroa'') (previously known as the chorister robin) is a species of bird in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It is found in South Africa and Eswatini. Its distribution stretches from the southern ...

(''C. dichroa''). The clutch varies between 2 and 4 eggs, and the female incubates the clutch on her own, the eggs hatch after around 2 weeks and the female broods the young, on and off, for the first week after hatching> The young fledge after 11 or 12 days, although 17 days has been recorded. The juveniles are dependant n their parents for approximately 6 weeks after fledging. The

red-chested cuckoo The red-chested cuckoo (''Cuculus solitarius'') is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is a medium-sized bird found in Africa, south of the Sahara. In Afrikaans, it is known as "Piet-my-vrou", after its call. Description The red- ...

(''Cuculus solitarius'') has been recorded as a

brood parasite Brood may refer to: Nature * Brood, a collective term for offspring * Brooding, the incubation of bird eggs by their parents * Bee brood, the young of a beehive * Individual broods of North American periodical cicadas: ** Brood X, the largest ...

of the red-capped robin-chat. This species is both insectivorous and frugivorous and has been recorded feeding on a wide variety of invertebrates and fruit. Invertebrates are mainly found by searching through the leaf litter, sometimes by catching them in flight on tree trunks and in the air. Fruit is taken mainly from the canopy. It will forage on the periphery of

driver ant ''Dorylus'', also known as driver ants, safari ants, or siafu, is a large genus of army ants found primarily in central and east Africa, although the range also extends to southern Africa and tropical Asia. The term siafu is a loanword from Swa ...

columns and in mixed species flocks. It has been recorded foraging around other birds and mammals, catching disturbed insects.

References

External links

* Natal robin/red-capped robin-chat
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
{{DEFAULTSORT:robin-chat, red-capped

red-capped robin-chat The red-capped robin-chat or Natal robin (''Cossypha natalensis'') is a species of passerine bird belonging to the Family (biology), family Muscicapidae. This species is found in central and eastern Sub-Saharan Africa. Taxonomy The red-capped ro ...

Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Andrew Smith (zoologist)