From Opus

Motacilla capensis

Photo by Max Holdt
Location: Kleinmond, Cape, South Africa.

[edit] Identification

L. 20 cm, Wt. 20 g

Gregarious

• Dull olive grey
• Dull off-white below
• Blackish breast band
• White supercilium
• White edges to wing feathers
• Dark grey-brown tail

[edit] Distribution

Sub-Saharan Africa: DRC, Uganda and Kenya in the north to southern South Africa.

[edit] Habitat

Almost anywhere where there is water with open ground nearby, from fynbos to forest edge and through alpine grasslands to the Namib Desert.

[edit] Taxonomy

Motacilla capensis has three subspecies:

• M. c. simplicissima

• Southern DRC, Zambia, Angola, Caprivi (north-eastern Namibia), northern Botswana and extreme western Zimbabwe.
• Swamp-dwelling form; more olive than nominate, underparts yellowish, dark breast spot rather than breast band.

• M. c. capensis

• South-western Angola, Namibia, southeastern Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, and parts of southern Mozambique.
• As described under Identification.

• M. c. wellsi

• South-western Kenya, Uganda, eastern DRC and Tanzania.

[edit] Behaviour

Diet: Usually forages by walking purposefully, picking or darting after insects. Also wades through shallow water, picking prey in or over water. Mainly insects, dead or alive, including moths, dragonflies, ants, caterpillars, beetles, mosquitoes and termites.

Breeding: Solitary nester retaining same mate for successive breeding attempts and will attack its reflection in glass or metal during breeding season. Nest has a bulky base built of grasses, weeds, roots, pine needles and seedpods.

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