White-tailed crested flycatcher facts for kids
Quick facts for kids White-tailed crested flycatcher |
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| Illustration (bird above) | |
| Conservation status | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Stenostiridae |
| Genus: | Elminia |
| Species: |
E. albonotata
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| Binomial name | |
| Elminia albonotata (Sharpe, 1891)
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| Synonyms | |
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The white-tailed crested flycatcher (Elminia albonotata) is a small, active bird that belongs to the flycatcher family, called Stenostiridae. These birds are known for their cool crests, which are like a little crown of feathers on their heads! You can find them living in different parts of eastern Africa.
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About the White-tailed Crested Flycatcher
This special bird is quite small, only about 13 centimeters long, and has a long tail. Its wings and the feathers on its crest are black. The rest of its body is mostly grey, but it has a white belly, a white rump (the area above its tail), and white feathers under its tail. Its bill is black, its eyes are dark brown, and its legs are grey. The calls of this flycatcher are usually soft and not very structured.
Where it Lives
The white-tailed crested flycatcher likes to live in certain types of places. Its natural habitat includes subtropical or tropical evergreen montane forests. These are forests found in mountains that stay green all year round. It also lives in nearby shrublands and areas with bamboo.
You can find these birds at different heights in the mountains. For example, in Tanzania's Udzungwa Mountains, they live from about 600 meters to 1900 meters high. In other places, they can live even higher, up to 2700 meters!
Sometimes, this bird's home overlaps with another similar bird called the white-bellied crested flycatcher. When they live in the same area, the white-tailed crested flycatcher tends to stay at higher altitudes, usually above 2250 meters. But if the white-bellied crested flycatcher isn't around, the white-tailed crested flycatcher might live as low as 1200 meters.
What it Eats
Like most flycatchers, this bird loves to eat small creatures without backbones, which are called invertebrates. Even though scientists haven't studied their diet a lot, we know they enjoy munching on flies, ants, moths, and spiders. They usually travel around in pairs or small family groups. Sometimes, they even join up with other types of birds to hunt for food together in what are called mixed-species feeding flocks.
Family Life and Reproduction
During the time when they have babies, pairs of white-tailed crested flycatchers become very protective of their territory. They are monogamous, which means a male and female bird stay together to raise their young. At the start of the breeding season, the male bird will show off to the female, often using his tail in a special display. He will also feed the female as a way to show he cares.
The female bird usually lays two eggs in a small nest. This nest is often built in the fork of a tree branch, usually about 2 meters high, but sometimes as high as 6 meters! The parents share the work of raising their chicks. The female bird does all the incubation, which means she sits on the eggs to keep them warm until they hatch. Once the chicks hatch, the male bird takes over feeding them. The young birds are ready to fledge (leave the nest and fly) after about 15 days.
 | Janet Taylor Pickett |
 | Synthia Saint James |
 | Howardena Pindell |
 | Faith Ringgold |
