From Opus

Photo by Mike Pennington
Photographed: Adis Ababa, Ethiopia

Melaenornis chocolatinus

[edit] Identification

15cm

• Dark-brown upperparts
• Greyish belly
• Light under the rump
• Buffy breast.

[edit] Distribution

Eastern Africa: found in Eritrea and Ethiopia.

[edit] Taxonomy

Two subspecies usually recognized:

• M. c. chocolatinus:

• High plateau of southern Eritrea to western and central Ethiopia

• M. c. reichenowi:

• Highlands of western Ethiopia (Wallegha to Gimirra)

This species was formerly placed in genus Dioptrornis.

[edit] Habitat

Humid, highland forest and woods and coffee plantations to a height of 2,500m

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

The diet includes flying insects which it hunts from a perch.

[edit] Breeding

It builds a cup-shaped nest placed at a narrow fork of a horizontal tree branch. 3 blue-grey, blotched eggs are laid.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Avibase
3. Answers.com

• List of references

[edit] External Links