Trochocercus nitens
The Blue-headed Crested Flycatcher (Trochocercus nitens) is a diminutive yet striking passerine, an avian jewel of the dense African forest understory. Measuring 11-13 cm in length and weighing a mere 8-12 grams, both sexes boast a magnificent, erectile crest and shimmering, glossy steel-blue to blue-black plumage across the head, nape, and upperparts, sharply contrasting with a pristine white belly and pale grey flanks. Its distinctive crest, often fanned during display, serves as a key iden...
This species primarily inhabits the dense understory and mid-story of humid lowland tropical and subtropical forests, including mature primary, secondary, and gallery forests, typically found at elevations below 1,500 meters.
Its diet consists almost exclusively of small insects, including beetles, flies, ants, and caterpillars, which it procures through agile sally-gleaning from foliage and by catching prey in mid-air.
The Blue-headed Crested Flycatcher is a highly active, diurnal species, constantly on the move within its forest realm, often flicking its tail and fanning its crest. Its primary foraging strategy involves agile sally-gleaning, darting from perches to snatch insects from foliage or catching them ...
The Blue-headed Crested Flycatcher is endemic to the tropical and subtropical forests of West and Central Africa, boasting a wide but patchy distribution. Its range extends from Sierra Leone and Liberia in the west, eastward through Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria, continuing into Ca...
Least Concern
- Despite its common name, the Blue-headed Crested Flycatcher is not a 'true' flycatcher (family Muscicapidae) but belongs to the Monarchidae family, more closely related to paradise-flycatchers. - Its scientific species name, 'nitens,' is Latin for 'shining' or 'gleaming,' a fitting descriptor f...