Mocking cliff chat
{{Short description|Species of bird}}
{{Speciesbox
| image = Thamnolaea cinnamomeiventris 2010 10 07 11622.jpg
| image_caption = Male in South Africa
| image2 = Mocking Cliff Chat - female.jpg
| image2_caption = Female in South Africa
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| taxon = Thamnolaea cinnamomeiventris
| authority = (Lafresnaye, 1836){{cite web | url = https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=563383#null | title = Thamnolaea cinnamomeiventris (Lafresnaye, 1836) | access-date = 2016-11-20 | website=www.itis.gov}}
| synonyms = *Myrmecocichla cinnamomeiventris Lafresnaye, 1836
}}
The mocking cliff chat, mocking chat or cliff chat, (Thamnolaea cinnamomeiventris) is a species of chat in the family Muscicapidae which occurs in rocky habitats in much of eastern Sub-Saharan Africa. It is the only species placed in the genus Thamnolaea.
Taxonomy
The mocking cliff chat was formally described and illustrated in 1836 by the French ornithologist Frédéric de Lafresnaye based on a specimen that had been sent to France from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Lafresnaye placed the species with the thrushes in the genus Turdus and coined the binomial name Turdus cinnamomeiventris.{{ cite journal | last=de Lafresnaye | first=Frédéric | author-link=Frédéric de Lafresnaye | date=1836 | title=Merle à ventre couleur cannelle T. cinnamomeiventris | language=French | journal=Magasin de Zoologie | volume=6 | pages=[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/37086034 1-2], [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/37086266 Plates 55, 56] }} The specific epithet combines Modern Latin cinnamomeus meaning "cinnamon-coloured" with Latin venter, ventris meaning "belly".{{ cite web | last=Jobling | first=James A. | title=cinnamomeiventris | work=The Key to Scientific Names | url=https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/key-to-scientific-names/search?q=cinnamomeiventris | publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology | access-date=12 March 2025 }} The type locality has been designated as Cape Province.{{ cite book | editor1-last=Mayr | editor1-first=Ernst | editor1-link=Ernst Mayr | editor2-last=Paynter | editor2-first=Raymond A. Jr | year=1964 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=10 | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | location=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=120 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14486309 }} The mocking cliff chat is now the only species placed in the genus Thamnolaea that was introduced in 1851 by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis.{{ cite book | last=Cabanis | first=Jean | author-link=Jean Cabanis | year=1850–1851 | title=Museum Heineanum : Verzeichniss der ornithologischen Sammlung des Oberamtmann Ferdinand Heine, auf Gut St. Burchard vor Halberstadt | volume=1 | language=German, Latin | location=Halberstadt | publisher=R. Frantz | page=8 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/49584387 }} For a discussion of the publication date see: {{ cite book | last1=Dickinson | first1=E.C. | author1-link=Edward C. Dickinson | last2=Overstreet | first2=L.K. | last3=Dowsett | first3=R.J. | last4=Bruce | first4=M.D. | year=2011 | title=Priority! The Dating of Scientific Names in Ornithology: a Directory to the literature and its reviewers | location=Northampton, UK | publisher=Aves Press | isbn=978-0-9568611-1-5 | pages=80-81 | url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267763194 }}{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela C. Rasmussen | date=February 2025 | title=Chats, Old World flycatchers | work=IOC World Bird List Version 15.1 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/chats/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=12 March 2025}} The genus name combines the Ancient Greek θαμνος/thamnos meaning "bush" with λαιος/laios meaning "thrush".{{ cite web | last=Jobling | first=James A. | title=Thamnolaea | work=The Key to Scientific Names | url=https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/key-to-scientific-names/search?q=Thamnolaea | publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology | access-date=12 March 2025 }}
Nine subspecies are recognised:
- T. c. cavernicola Bates, GL, 1933 – central Mali
- T. c. bambarae Bates, GL, 1928 – south Mauritania, east Senegal and southwest Mali
- T. c. albiscapulata (Rüppell, 1837) – north Eritrea, north, central, east Ethiopia
- T. c. subrufipennis Reichenow, 1887 – southeast Sudan and southwest Ethiopia south to Zambia and Malawi
- T. c. odica Clancey, 1962 – east Zimbabwe
- T. c. cinnamomeiventris (Lafresnaye, 1836) – east Botswana, east South Africa, west Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and Lesotho
- T. c. autochthones Clancey, 1952 – south Mozambique, northeast South Africa and east Eswatini (formerly Swaziland)
- T. c. coronata Reichenow, 1902 – north Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso to west Sudan
- T. c. kordofanensis Wettstein, 1916 – central Sudan
Subspecies T. c. coronata together with T. c. kordofanensis have sometimes been considered as a separate species, the white-crowned cliff chat.
Description
The mocking cliff chat is a large chat with distinctive colouration. The male has a glossy black with a chestnut belly, vent, and rump and white shoulder patches. The shoulder patches vary in size geographically. The female is dark grey with a chestnut lower breast, belly, and vent.{{cite book | author1 = Ian Sinclair | author2 = Peter Ryan | year =2003 | title = Birds of Africa south of the Sahara | publisher = Struik | pages =472–473 | isbn = 1-86872-857-9}} The mocking cliff chat has a length of 19–21 cm and weigh 41–51g.{{cite web | url = http://www.hbw.com/species/mocking-cliff-chat-thamnolaea-cinnamomeiventris | title = Mocking Cliff-chat (Thamnolaea cinnamomeiventris) | access-date = 2016-11-20 | publisher = Lynx Edicions|work = HBW Alive}}
=Voice=
A loud fluty melodious warbling song which often contains many rapid-fire phrases mimicking other species, with some harsher phrases interspersed.{{cite book | last1 = Zimmerman | first1 = Dale A. | last2 = Turner | first2 = Donald A. | last3 = Pearson | first3 = David J.| year = 1996 | title = Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania | publisher = Helm | page = 548 | isbn = 0-7136-3968-7}}
Distribution and habitat
The mocking cliff chat occurs in a neat band from central Ethiopia in the north through east Africa into Zimbabwe, south-eastern Botswana, southern Mozambique and eastern South Africa as far as the far east of Western Cape province. Mostly resident but in the south of its range tends to move to lower altitudes in the winter months.{{cite web | url = http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/birds/muscicapidae/thamnolaea_cinnamomeiventris.htm | title = Thamnolaea cinnamomeiventris (Mocking cliff-chat, Mocking chat) | access-date = 2016-11-20 | publisher = Iziko Museums of South Africa|work = Biodiversity Explorer}} It inhabits rocky and boulder strewn areas, well-wooded rocky ravines, cliffs, gullies, boulder-strewn hillsides and watercourses in valley bottoms with scattered rocks.
Behaviour
=Food and feeding=
The mocking cliff chat is mainly insectivorous but also eats fruit and feeds on the nectar of aloes, such as the Krantz aloe, Aloe arborescens. Its chief foraging technique is to pounce on food on the ground from a perch but it will also glean food from branches and foliage. They habitually wag their tails, slowly raising it over their backs and fanning it out.
=Breeding=
Both sexes build the nest, taking about a week to construct an open cup built over a foundation of twigs, leaves, roots and feathers and lined with the hair of mammals. They often use the nests of striped swallows frequently evicting the swallows while they are still using the nest. The nest is usually positioned below a rock overhang, bridge, culvert or in a cave and it may sometimes be placed in a hole in a wall or in a cavity in agricultural machinery.
In southern Africa the eggs are laid from August–December, with a peak during September–November. The normal clutch size is 2-4 eggs, which the female incubates for about 14–16 days. Both parents feed the chicks which fledge at about three weeks old.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- Mocking cliff chat - [http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/593.pdf Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds].
- [http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Thamnolaea-cinnamomeiventris Recordings at Xeno-Canto]
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