Northern black flycatcher
M. e. elioides
Banjul, Gambia
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
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

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

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.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Melaenornis edolioides.
  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.
  • Birds of The Gambia by Barlow, Wacher and Disley, ISBN 1-873403-32-1
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