African Blue Flycatcher

Overview

The African blue flycatcher, or blue-crested flycatcher, is a dainty, pale, bright blue bird belonging to the family Stenostiridae. It is found across western and central Sub-Saharan Africa.

Identification

• Measures 15–18 cm in length and weighs 7–12 g, featuring a short crest and long tail.
• Upper parts and tail are bright blue shading to cyan, with black lores and flight feathers edged with blue; underparts are greyish blue fading to whitish on the belly.
• Bill and legs are black, while juveniles appear duller with faint greyish spotting on the head and wing coverts.
• Song consists of slow, rather random and tuneless sibilant notes strung together, with a quiet "tsip" call.

Habitat

This species inhabits moist lowland forests, mangrove forests, gallery forests, montane forests, gardens, wooded farmland, and moist savannas. Its range extends from Mauritania, Senegal, and Gambia east discontinuously to Kenya and south through the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to northern Angola.

Diet

The bird forages rather gracefully with a fanned tail and half-open wings among leaves, occasionally foraging on the ground or flycatching. Specific food items are not detailed in the provided references.

Did you know?

The African blue flycatcher is thought to form a superspecies with the white-tailed blue flycatcher, yet differences between this pair and other species in the genus Elminia are considered insufficient to merit separation into a different genus.