Alternative name: Ashy Alseonax
- Muscicapa caerulescens
Identification
14-16cm. This is a pale grey or blue-grey flycatcher of forest margins. The black loral line and the short white supraloral streak which joins the narrow white eye-ring are good diagnostic features for this bird.
Distribution
Sub-Saharan Africa: Guinea to south-eastern Somalia, Angola and eastern South Africa.
Taxonomy
There are 6 subspecies;
- M. c. caerulescens
- M. c. nigrorum
- M. c. brevicauda
- M. c. cinereola
- M. c. impavida
- M. c. vulturna
Habitat
Dry and moist forests (where it prefers forest edge and clearings) and moist savanna.
Behaviour
The diet comprises mainly insects; hawked or taken on the ground. Also seen eating small fruit and small geckos.
Breeding
Monogamous and territorial. Both sexes build a cup-shaped nest using bark, grass, moss and rootlets (sometimes spiders web); it is placed in a shallow cavity in a tree or rock-face, or at a narrow fork between branches. Two to three cream, finely spotted eggs are laid and incubated for about 14 days. Parasitism by Klaas's Cuckoo has been recorded.
