Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"

Today's birdie is a White-throated Robin-Chat, Dessonornis humeralis. This poor little thing went through the gauntlet of taxonomic re-shuffling! Robin-chats were first known only as robins. Together with the well-known Eurasian Robin, they were classified in the Thrush Family, the Turdidae. The American Robin was named for its orange-red underside, but is actually a species of true thrush. It reflects the nature of people migrating to new countries to call the new birds they find by names of birds they're familiar with in the old country. The same happened with the African robin-chats, because they, too, often have reddish or orange colours on their chests and bellies. But they are actually fairly closely related to European robins. The first reshuffling happened when a whole slew of species were removed from the thrush family and thrust into the flycatcher family, the Muscicapidae. Thus, the African robin-chats and the Eurasian robins are now no longer in the same family as the American robin.

The African robin-chats still formed a well-defined and easily distinguishable group, with around twelve recognized species, classified in the genus Cossypha (apart from a couple of small ones given the genus Cossyphicula). The white-throated robin-chat, however, was in the early nineteenth century given its own genus, Dessonornis. This name was a mistake; its originator, British ornithologist Andrew Smith intended it to be Bessonornis, which means 'glen-dwelling bird', but made a spelling mistake in his description. He tried to correct it in 1840, but the rules of ornithological nomenclature say that the first published name stands as the correct one, even if it has a mistake in it. So now the genus was Dessonornis, which doesn't really mean anything.

But the white-throated robin-chat didn't stay in that genus for long; soon it was lumped with the other African robin-chats into the genus Cossypha, which is Greek for 'blackbird or thrush' (further confusion). But recent studies showed that four species were closer relatives of the Angola Cave Chat, and to the African Palm Thrushes, than they were of the other robin-chats. The four species included this one, and also the Cape Robin-Chat, and two others. They were all put into the resurrected genus Dessonornis.

All this confusion and hooplah around a very humble little bird! The white-throated robin-chat is simply a bird slightly larger than a house sparrow, with a neat black, white and orange plumage pattern, that lives in thickets in woodlands or savannahs, and is almost entirely confined to Southern Africa. It is easy to identify if seen well � it has a white throat and breast, shading to orange on the lower belly; the tail is deep orange with a blackish tip; its upperparts are sooty black, with a prominent white eyebrow. It is somewhat private, but not secretive – a bit of effort will usually allow you to locate and get a good view of a singing bird. Like other robin-chats, it is an excellent vocalist, with a variety of rich chirping calls, and also songs in which it mimics a number of other birds. But its contact call is a simple 'tsee' or 'tsee-tseeu' whistle.

White-throated robin-chats are quite familiar to me. They occur in the Polokwane Nature Reserve, in the Bird Sanctuary, and in gardens, including my own. At the moment, though, in my garden, the closely related Cape Robin-Chat has displaced them, and I haven't seen them here for some time. They forage both in trees and bushes, and on the ground. Their usual food is insects, but they'll also eat berries and other fruits, such as those of caper-bushes, wild raisins, tassel-berries and guarris. They typically occur solitarily. They nest on the ground, or on low banks, or in a hollow stump, no more than a metre above ground level. The nest is a cup made of twigs, grasses and leaves, lined with soft plant material. The female lays two or three eggs. Only she incubates, but when the chicks hatch, both parents feed them. Sometimes the nest is parasitized by the Red-chested Cuckoo, a much larger bird. The cuckoos typically eject all the robin-chat's own eggs, leaving the single chick to be raised alone by its unwitting foster parents. Proper robin-chat chicks will mature over about two weeks and then leave the nest, after which the parents will continue feeding them for another few weeks. The juveniles have a dull brown plumage, only achieving the neat adult coloration when they're sexually mature.

At present, white-throated robin-chats occur over about a quarter of Southern Africa, and are reasonably abundant and secure in prime habitat. They are also adaptable to some human-changed landscapes, and thus not considered to be in any danger of extinction.

Willem

30.10.23 Front Page

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