Northern black flycatcher

Northern black flycatcher
M. e. elioides Banjul, Gambia
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Muscicapidae
Genus:	Melaenornis
Species:	M. edolioides
Binomial name
Melaenornis edolioides (Swainson, 1837)

M. e. lugubris
Kakamega Forest, Kenya

The northern black flycatcher (Melaenornis edolioides) is a small passerine bird in the flycatcher family, Muscicapidae.

Range

This is an insectivorous species which is a resident breeder in tropical Africa from Senegal to Ethiopia and south to Zaire and Tanzania.

Habitat

The northern black flycatcher is found in moist wooded areas and cultivation. It nests in a hole or reuses the old nest of another species, and lays two or three eggs. Breeding takes place in the wet season.

Description

The northern black flycatcher is 20 centimetres (7.9 in) long. It is a large upright long-tailed flycatcher. The adult is uniformly black. Juveniles are blackish-brown with buff scaling.

The long square-ended tail helps to distinguish this species from two other all-black insectivores, the fork-tailed drongo and the shorter-tailed and red-eyed common square-tailed drongo.

Song

This flycatcher has a simple musical song and a thin tsee-whee call.

References

• Birds of The Gambia by Barlow, Wacher and Disley, ISBN 1-873403-32-1