Alternative name: Red-faced Sylvetta
- Sylvietta whytii
Identification
9 cm. A grey-backed crombec with a tawny plain face.
- Light grey top of head and upperparts
- Tawny-buff face and underparts, paler on belly and undertail-coverts
- Darker brownish-grey upperwing, remiges with pale greyish edges
- Reddish-brown to hazel-coloured eyes
- minima is paler than nominate, sometimes tinged olive above
- jacksoni id darger grey and deeper tawny below
- loringi is more olive-browned tinged above and paler below with whiter central belly
Sexes similar. Juveniles have tawny tips of wing-coverts.
Distribution
Eastern Africa: From Ethiopia and South Sudan to Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Locally fairly common.
Taxonomy
Four subspecies recognized:
- S. w. loringi from South Sudan and Ethiopia to northern Uganda, western Kenya and northeast Tanzania
- S. w. jacksoni from Uganda to southwest Kenya, western Tanzania and northern Malawi
- S. w. minima in coastal eastern Kenya and Tanzania
- S. w. whytii from coastal southern Tanzania to Mozambique, Zimbabwe and southern Malawi
Forms a superspecies with Philippa's Crombec and Northern Crombec.
Habitat
Forest edge, woodland and shrubland, also semi-arid thorn-scrub and acacia.
Occurs mainly at 1000-2000 m.
Behaviour
Diet
Feeds on insects. Takes also spiders and small worms.
Forages in trees and tall bushes, in pairs or in mixed-species parties.
Forages at higher levels where occuring together with Long-billed Crombec.
Breeding
Breeds before or early in rains. A monogamous species and territorial. The nest is a thick-walled oval pouch made of silk webs and strips of bark. It's hung from a drooping branch 0.5 to 5 m above the ground, often quite in the open. Lays 1 to 3 eggs.
Movements
A sedentary species.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2013. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.8., with updates to August 2013. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Del Hoyo, J, A Elliot, and D Christie, eds. 2006. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8496553064
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Red-faced Crombec. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 12 March 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Red-faced_Crombec
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
