Melaenornis pammelaina
The Southern Black Flycatcher (Melaenornis pammelaina) is a striking, medium-sized passerine, measuring approximately 19-22 cm in length and weighing between 28-40 grams. Adults are uniformly glossy black, a distinguishing feature among its family, with dark eyes, a stout black bill, and black legs, giving it an elegant and bold appearance. This species belongs to the Muscicapidae family, the Old World Flycatchers, and is closely related to other Melaenornis species like the Northern Black Fl...
This adaptable species inhabits a variety of open woodland, savanna, and forest edge environments, often favoring areas with scattered trees, cultivated lands, and gardens, from sea level up to approximately 2,000 meters.
Primarily insectivorous, its diet consists mainly of flies, beetles, grasshoppers, and moths, which it captures adeptly in flight or gleans from foliage and the ground, occasionally supplementing with small berries.
Active and diurnal, the Southern Black Flycatcher is often seen perched prominently on tree branches, telephone wires, or fence posts, from which it launches swift, acrobatic sallies to catch flying insects. It is a highly territorial bird, defending its breeding and feeding grounds with vigorous...
The Southern Black Flycatcher is a widespread resident across much of sub-Saharan Africa, inhabiting a vast area from eastern Kenya and Tanzania south through Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi, extending westward to Angola and Namibia, and encompassing all of South Africa. It is largely a ...
Least Concern
- Its scientific genus name, *Melaenornis*, literally translates to "black bird," a fitting description for this uniformly dark species. - The Southern Black Flycatcher is renowned for its remarkably clear, melodious, and often human-like whistling song, which can carry quite far. - Despite its "...