Familiar chat (Gewone spekvreter)

Scientific name: Cercomela familiaris

The familiar chat is a dumpy short-tailed bird 14–15 cm (5.5–5.9 in) long. The adult’s upperparts are a dull brown with warmer brown ear coverts behind the eye. The underparts vary from off-white to pale grey-brown, and the rump and outer tail feathers are rufous with a dark brown tip. The central tail feathers are dark brown. The short straight bill and the legs and feet are black. The sexes are alike, but the juvenile is similar to the adult but has buff spots above and a scaly pattern on the breast.
 It is common across Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, south-eastern Botswana and north-western Mozambique, generally preferring boulder-strewn mountain slopes, rocky outcrops, valley hills, open woodland along drainage lines, woodland, farmyards and rural gardens.
It mainly eats invertebrates, which it catches using a variety of foraging techniques, often pouncing on prey on the ground from a perch or hawking insects aerially. It also gleans food from leaves and branches while hovering or chasing small arthropods on the ground; it may even forage in the intertidal zone, perching on kelps or seaweed.