• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

Arnot's Chat - BirdForum Opus

Male
Photo by Hans&Judy Beste
Akagera National Park, Rwanda

Alternative name: White-headed Black Chat; Arnott's Chat

Myrmecocichla arnotti

Identification

Male is black with white crown and white on the shoulder; tail and rump being completely black separate it from other similar birds.
Female is mostly black including crown but with black-speckled white on breast and throat.

Distribution

Graphic by Nrg800

Africa
Western Africa: DRC, Angola
Eastern Africa: Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa

Taxonomy

Subspecies[1]

There are 2 subspecies

  • M. a. harterti:
  • M. a. arnotti:

Ruaha Chat was formerly considered conspecific.

Habitat

Dry forests.

Behaviour

In Rwanda they don't inhabit miombo woodland like across the border in Tanzania but human habitations and nest in roofs.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Avibase
  3. Birdforum Member observations
  4. Birdforum thread mentioning the possible split of "Ruaha Chat" (in post 356)
  5. Sinclair et al. 2002. Birds of Southern Africa. Princeton Field Guides, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. ISBN 0-691-09682-1

Recommended Citation

External Links

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.

Back
Top