Chats and flycatchers | Muscicapidae

Vliegenvangers en tapuiten | Papamoscas y afines

What these birds share outwardly is limited: they are grouped together chiefly on skull structure and hereditary data, which is why the flycatchers now sit in one family with the wheatears, rock thrushes, robin-chats and scrub robins formerly placed among the thrushes. The common ground is a small body with a thin pointed bill bristled at the base, and insect catching from a lookout: one kind darts up after a flying insect, another drops from a low perch onto the ground and hops back to the same perch. In the dry western half of the region the family is represented by pale, long-legged chats of karoo, open plain and scree, which bob the tail and droop the wings; in the eastern forest and gorge bush by robin-chats with orange underparts and a grey or black-and-white head pattern, which are accomplished mimics and work the calls of other birds into their song. A striking number carry colour in the tail — rufous, white sides or a black-and-white pattern — and flash it with a jerk on landing. They nest in holes, crevices and self-dug or appropriated tunnels in earth banks and termite mounds, or in a well-hidden cup; several species are parasitised by cuckoos, and some live in parties with helpers. Alongside the residents, which make up the bulk of the family, the southern summer brings an addition of species that breed in Eurasia and spend the non-breeding season here.