Scientific name: Cossypha caffra
The Cape robin-chat (Cossypha caffra) is a small passerine bird of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It has a disjunct range from South Sudan to South Africa.[2] The locally familiar species has adapted itself to various man-altered habitats. The Cape robin-chat is 16–17 cm long. The adult’s upper-parts are grey, and the face sides in front of and behind the eye are blackish, and is separated from the crown by a white supercilium. The chin, throat, central breast, rump, under-tail coverts and outer tail feathers are orange. The breast is deeper orange in colour during the non-breeding season.[2] The central tail feathers are greyish-brown and the belly is pale grey.
The black bill is short and straight, with a slightly down-curved upper mandible. The legs and feet are pinkish grey, and the eye is brown. The sexes are similar, but the juvenile is dark brown above and buff below, heavily marked with buff on the upperparts and grey-brown on the breast.
It forages close to or on ground level. It prefers the cover of dense vegetation, but is not very shy. Invertebrates, small frogs and lizards are obtained in scrub or on leaf litter. In addition fruit and seeds are plucked from plants or eaten on the ground.[6] Occasionally an insect may be hawked in the air, or invertebrates may be gleaned from leaves, branches or rocks.
