African Blue Flycatcher - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by Steve G
Kakamega, Kenya, July, 2011

Alternative name: Blue Crested Flycatcher^[1]

Elminia longicauda

Identification

Adult of race teresita
Photo © by MURAMURA
Mbarara, Katojo, western Uganda
December 2006

15–18 cm (6-7 in)
Male

• Cobalt blue upperparts and throat
• Lighter below
• Long tail
  

Females and immatures

• Grey
• Narrow band of blue on edges of wing and tail-feathers.

Distribution

Equatorial Africa
Western Africa: Senegambia, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Angola
Eastern Africa: South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi

Taxonomy

Sometimes considered a superspecies with the White-tailed Blue-Flycatcher, E. albicauda.

1. The alternative name Blue Crested Flycatcher may lead to confusion with Blue-crested Flycatcher, Myiagra azureocapilla.

Subspecies

Photo © by volker sthamer
Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, January 2019

This is a polytypic species^[1] consisting of two subspecies^[1]:

• E. l. longicauda:

• Senegal to Gambia and Nigeria

• E. l. teresita:

• Cameroon and Gabon east across northern Democratic Republic of the Congo to southern Central African Republic, southwestern South Sudan, Uganda, and western Kenya

Habitat

Open secondary forest, mangrove, swampy or riverine forests, and wooded savannas, cleared and abandoned fruit and cocoa plantations.

Behaviour

Diet

The diet consists almost entirely of insects such as bees, ants, flies, termites and beetles, which can be hawked or gleaned.

Breeding

They construct a compact, cup-shaped nest. The clutch contains 1-2 white eggs which are incubated by the female. Both parents feed the young, with assistance from non-breeding adults or immatures in the group.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2018. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2018. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Avibase
3. Answers.com
4. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved March 2019)

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) African Blue Flycatcher. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 27 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/African_Blue_Flycatcher

External Links

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