Cover image of Grey Tit by Felicity Ellmore – Vredendal district, Western Cape

The Grey Tit is a member of the Family PARIDAE (Tits, Chickadees, and Titmice). They are mainly small, stocky, woodland species with short, stout bills. Some species have crests. Overall, the Paridae are very similar in general morphology. They are mostly adaptable birds, with a mixed diet including seeds and insects. Most tits live in forested habitats, from boreal coniferous forests in the north to humid tropical forests in the south. A small number occupy desert scrub and other arid habitats. All species require cavities in which to nest. This family comprises 62 species from 13 genera. 7 species occur in southern Africa.

Identification

The Grey Tit is a fairly small grey, black and white passerine. Its common name is misleading as it is not as grey as the closely related Ashy Tit (Melaniparus ….).

The sexes are similar but differ slightly in plumage colouration.

In adult males, the crown, lores, upper cheeks, and nape are black with a slight gloss. A broad buffy-white band extends from the base of the bill across the cheeks and ear coverts to the sides of the neck. There is a buffy-white patch at the edge of the upper mantle. The rest of the mantle, scapulars and rump are dark greyish-brown. The tail is dusky-brown with buff-white outer tail feathers. The lower cheeks, chin, throat, and sides of the foreneck are black. The black extending as an ‘arrow’-shaped bib onto the upper belly. The sides of the breast, lower belly and flanks are pinkish buff. The bill is black, the eyes are dark brown, and the legs and feet are grey.

Females are similar to males, but the cap is sooty black and less glossy. The throat and bib are brownish-black and less extensive than in males. Juveniles resemble the adults but have a brownish black cap, a browner back, and the primaries and secondaries have buffy edges.

The grey Tit is quite similar to the Ashy Tit (Melaniparus cinerascens). However, the latter has a white, not buffy-white, patch from the base of the bill to the hind neck. The Ashy Tit also has a bluish-grey, not grey-brown, back, and its flanks are grey, not pinkish buff.

Status and Distribution

The Grey Tit is fairly common across most of its range but is uncommon in very arid regions. It is endemic to southern Africa and occurs in south-western Namibia, the Northern and Western Cape, east to the south-western Free State, the Eastern Cape and the Lesotho highlands.

The Grey Tit is not threatened. It is common and occupies habitats that are not presently under threat.

Habitat

Across much of its range in the Nama and Succulent Karoo, it is associated with karroid scrub, usually in rocky places, on hillsides and around koppies. The Grey Tit also inhabits dry woodland along seasonal rivers, dwarf shrublands, strandveld, renosterveld and farmyards. In Lesotho, it occupies rocky areas and slopes with moderate to thick scrub cover.

Behaviour

The Grey Tit is resident but often locally nomadic in drier areas. It is usually seen in pairs or small family groups of 3 to 6 birds. They roost singly in cavities in trees and stone walls, and in steel pipes.

The Grey Tit is an active species that moves restlessly through vegetation. It is rather vocal and calls frequently while foraging. Forages on branches and among the foliage of trees and bushes, hopping about and hanging upside down to glean items from crevices in bark and twigs. They often break open thorns to extract insect larvae and peck at the bases of dry seed heads to test for the presence of insect larvae or seed parasites.

The Grey Tit eats mostly insects, especially butterfly and moth caterpillars. It also consumes ants and termites as well as their alates. They also feed on beetles, spiders, and sometimes small berries. Some food items are first stunned by bashing them against a stone or branch before swallowing them whole. Larger items, including large caterpillars, are first bashed, then held down with a foot to be eaten in manageable chunks.

The Grey Tit is a facultative cooperative breeder, and all group members participate in searching for suitable nest sites. The nest is built by both sexes in around 14 days. The nest is a thick pad of hair, feathers, sheep’s wool and grass or other fine plant material. It is located at the bottom of a cavity in a tree, in an earthen bank, a stone wall, or a steel pipe. The Grey Tit sometimes also uses old nests of the Greater Striped Swallow (Cecropis cucullata).

Eggs are laid from Jul to Oct in the winter rainfall region of the Western Cape and from August to March across the rest of its range. 2 to 5 eggs are laid per clutch. The eggs are white, finely spotted with reddish, purple and grey, and are oval in shape. The incubation period lasts for around 12 days. All incubation is done by the female. She is fed throughout by the male, who calls the female out of the nest to receive food.

The newly hatched young are undescribed. The nestling period lasts around 20 days. Nestlings are fed mainly caterpillars by the parents and 2 or 3 helpers. Almost fully fledged nestlings come to the nest entrance to receive food.

Further Resources

This species text is adapted from the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1), 1997.

The use of photographs by Felicity Ellmore, Johan van Rooyen, Karis Daniel, Lance Robinson, Marna Buys, Ryan Tippett, Sybrand Venter, Tino Herselman, and Zenobia van Dyk is acknowledged.

Other common names: Southern Grey Tit (Alt. English); Piet-tjou-tjou-grysmees (Afrikaans); Mésange petit-deuil (French); Kaapse Mees (Dutch); Kapmeiseerman); Chapim-cinzento-meridional (Portuguese).

Recommended citation format: Tippett RM 2026. Grey Tit Melaniparus afer. Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at https://thebdi.org/2026/08/31/grey-tit-melaniparus-afer/

A list of bird species in this format is available here.

Bird identification, birding

Cover image: Klaas’s Cuckoo by Tony Archer – Near Klerksdorp, North West

Cuckoos belong to the Family CUCULIDAE. This family includes Cuckoos, Coucals, Malkohas, Anis, Roadrunners, Couas, etc. It is a diverse group that contains both parasitic and nonparasitic species. They vary in size from small to large, with strong, sometimes deep and stout bills that are arched on the culmen. Their tails are mostly relatively long and heavy, and their wing may be long and pointed or short and rounded. Many species have crests, and the plumage is variable but is often spotted and barred. They have zygodactyl feet, and most species are arboreal, although a few are terrestrial. The Cuculidae have a worldwide distribution, although most are found in the tropics and subtropics. The family comprises 36 genera and 156 species. 20 species are known from southern Africa.

Identification

Klaas’s Cuckoo is an attractive, small cuckoo. They are sexually dimorphic, differing markedly in plumage colouration.

Adult males are uniformly bright, metallic green above, aside from a conspicuous white ear patch. The upper tail is glossy green with a bronzy sheen. The outer tail feathers are white. The undersides are pristine white with a metallic green half-collar from in front of the wings to the sides of the breast. The flanks are narrowly green-barred, and the leggings are white, with green streaks. The bill is greenish-black to black. The eyes are dark brown and the eye ring is green. The legs and feet are greenish-black.

Adult females have a greyish-brown head, the colour extending down the sides of the neck and to the upper breast and with a small white patch behind the eye. The upper back is also greyish brown, while the lower back is barred green and brown. The rump is brown with a copper sheen. The tail is white at the base. The central two pairs of rectrices are coppery brown. The rest of the tail feathers are white, each with a large coppery subterminal spot and 1 or 2 incomplete black bars. The folded wings are barred green and brown. The underparts are white with fine brown barring on the breast and flanks. The thighs are also barred in dull metallic green and buff. The bill is greenish with a black tip. The eyes are brownish-grey with a pale green eye ring. The legs and feet are greenish.

The sexes are alike in juveniles. The head and back are iridescent green with buff-brown barring and an indistinct white streak behind the eye. The tail has bronze-brown central rectrices with buff barring near the base and edges. The outer rectrices are white with black bars near the tip. The folded wings are metallic green with buff barring. Underparts are white and heavily barred bronze-green from the chin to the undertail coverts. The bill is black, and the eyes are rich brown.

Adult males can be mistaken for the male Diederik Cuckoo (Chrysococcy caprius). However, in the Klaas’s Cuckoo, the small white patch behind the eye and the green half-collar that extends onto the sides of the breast are diagnostic. Females of the two are similar to one another but are easily told apart by bill colour (red in Diederik Cuckoo and greenish-black in Klaas’s Cuckoo).

Female and juvenile Klaas’s Cuckoo are easily confused with the female and juvenile African Emerald Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx cupreus). The latter, however, lacks the white patch behind the eye and has a green-and-white (not brown-and-white) barred throat.

Status and Distribution

Klaas’s Cuckoo is found on the southern Arabian Peninsula, and widely in sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal east to Sudan and Ethiopia, south to South Africa. In southern Africa, it occurs sparsely in central and northern Namibia, northern, eastern and south-eastern Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and northern, eastern and southern South Africa. Klaas’s Cuckoo is largely absent from the arid regions of southern Africa.

Klaas’s Cuckoo is fairly common in southern Africa. It is not threatened and is well represented in protected areas. Its range in north-central South Africa appears to have expanded westward since the 1980s.

Habitat

Klaas’s Cuckoo inhabits forests, forest edges, and open or dense woodland, including thornveld, miombo (Brachystegia), and Mopane Colophospermum mopane woodlands. In otherwise unsuitable habitats, Klaas’s Cuckoo has adapted to parks, gardens, and alien trees around farmsteads. Reporting rates confirm its preference for forests, forest edge, and moist woodlands.

Behaviour

Klaas’s Cuckoo is an intra-African breeding migrant across most of its southern African range, arriving as early as August and departing in February. It is however, a resident in lowland areas.

Generally solitary and usually heard more often than seen. The Klaas’s Cuckoo’s distinctive song is delivered from a perch, either within foliage or from an exposed branch.

Klaas’s Cuckoo forages among foliage, gleaning invertebrates from leaves and occasionally hawking aerial prey. The diet consists mainly of butterflies and caterpillars, including large hairy ones, which are swallowed hairs and all. Large caterpillars are beaten against a branch before swallowing. A variety of other insects are also consumed, including bugs, beetles, moths, small grasshoppers, termites, and occasional seeds and fruit.

The Klaas’s Cuckoo is territorial. Territory size varies by habitat, and territories tend to be larger in drier areas. Males are believed to be promiscuous. Klaas’s Cuckoo is a brood parasite but is not host-specific and is known to parasitise at least 18 species in southern Africa. Batises, small warblers, and sunbirds are the primary hosts, including Cape Batis, Chinspot Batis and Pririt Batis, African Dusky Flycatcher, Bar-throated Apalis, Yellow-bellied Eremomela, Long-billed Crombec. Also Grey, Amethyst, Scarlet-chested, Malachite, Collared, Greater Double-collared, White-bellied, Dusky and Marico Sunbirds.

The egg-laying behaviour is not well known. Eggs are laid from September to April, with a peak from October to December. Females usually lay 1 egg per nest and will also remove 1 egg from the host clutch. A female lays an average of 24 eggs per season. The eggs are oval and white to pale greenish-blue with rufous-brown spots, speckles, or blotches. The eggs of each female vary considerably in colour and markings, and each individual lays a consistent egg type throughout her lifetime. Each female is thought to specialise in parasitising a particular host species in which her eggs best match those of the host. However, the accuracy of the egg matching varies. In some cases, the accuracy of the match is remarkable, and the difference is undetectable to the human eye. In many instances, the colour is the same, but the size is not and sometimes neither the size nor colour matches.

The incubation period is 11 to 12 days and typically shorter than that of the host’s eggs. Therefore, the cuckoo egg usually hatches before those of the host. A newly hatched cuckoo chick is altricial, naked, and blind. Despite its feeble appearance, the cuckoo chick wastes little time in evicting the other eggs or nestlings from the nest. Their eyes first open at around 6 days. If handled, the cuckoo chick can excrete a nauseating black and brown fluid from the cloaca. The nestling period takes up to 21 days. When the young cuckoo first leaves the nest, it is very tame and a poor flier, but after 7 to 10 days it flies well. The young cuckoo remains with the host adults for up to 25 days after fledging.

Further Resources

Here is the species text the First Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1), 1997.

The use of photographs by Colin Summersgill, Dave Rimmer, Desire Darling, Gregg Darling, Joanne Putter, Johan Heyns, Kate Braun, Lia Steen, Rick Nuttall, Roelof van der Breggen, Ryan Tippett, and Tony Archer is acknowledged.

Virtual Museum (BirdPix > Search VM > By Scientific or Common Name).

Other common names: Meitjie (Afrikaans); Klaaskoekoek (Dutch); Coucou de Klaas (French); Klaaskuckuck (German); Cuco-bronzeado-menor (Portuguese).

List of species available in this format.

Recommended citation format: Tippett RM 2026. Klaas’s Cuckoo Chrysococcyx klaas. Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at https://thebdi.org/2026/08/27/klaass-cuckoo-chrysococcyx-klaas/

Bird identification, birding

Similar Species

Cover image of Cape Penduline Tit by Roy Earle – Karas, Namibia

The Cape Penduline Tit belongs to the Family REMIZIDAE (Penduline Tits). These are tiny passerine birds related to the true tits but with finer, sharply pointed bills. Their wings are short and rounded, and their short tails are mostly notched. The common name of these birds derives from the globular suspended nest that most of them build. Some of these nests are unmatched in their ability to deceive predators. A conspicuous side entrance leads to a shallow false cavity, and the entry to the true nest chamber is a tube that, when not being used, lies flattened as the roof of the false entrance. This family comprises 11 species from 3 genera. 2 species occur in southern Africa.

Identification

The Cape Penduline Tit is one of the smallest bird species in southern Africa, reaching a length of 10cm and weighing just 7.5 grams.

The sexes are alike. In adults, the forehead and short supercilium are mottled black and white, colour extending back into short supercilium. A narrow black eye stripe extends from the lores to just behind the eye. The cheeks and ear coverts are whitish-grey. The rest of the upper parts are pale brownish grey. The tail is darker greyish-brown with buffy tips. The chin and throat are white and the breast, belly and undertail coverts are pale buffy yellow. Colouration of the bill varies from grey to greyish-black. The eyes are pale brown, surrounded by an indistinct whitish eye ring. The legs range in colour from black to dark blueish-grey.

Juveniles are like adults, but their upper parts are browner and their underparts are paler yellow. Additionally, the edges of the flight and tail feathers are washed pale yellow.

The Cape Penduline Tit is most likely to be mistaken for the similarly sized Grey Penduline Tit (Anthoscopus caroli). The latter has a plain buff (not black-and-white) forehead and buff (not pale yellow) underparts. The Yellow-bellied Eremomela (Eremomela icteropygialis) is also similar, but has a plain grey forehead, and a grey (not pale yellow) breast and a longer bill.

Status and Distribution

The Cape Penduline Tit is locally common and near-endemic to southern Africa. It ranges from south-western Angola, across much of Namibia, throughout Botswana, south-western Zimbabwe and most of South Africa, except for the Limpopo lowveld, most of Mpumalanga, the eastern Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, and the north-eastern parts of the Eastern Cape. The Cape Penduline Tit is also absent from Lesotho.

The Cape Penduline Tit is not threatened. It remains widespread and responds positively to bush encroachment from overgrazing in drier areas.

Habitat

The Cape Penduline Tit is found in several arid and semi-arid habitats throughout the region, particularly succulent and Nama Karoo shrublands and Kalahari thornveld. In the Fynbos biome, it is confined to lowland renosterveld and coastal strandveld. It is not found in mountain fynbos. In the Eastern Cape province, the Cape Penduline Tit is also found in Vachellia karoo thickets along watercourses. In the dwarf dwarf shrublands of the Karoo, it is most partial to areas of taller shrubs, especially along drainage lines.

Behaviour

The Cape Penduline Tit is resident and locally nomadic in response to rainfall. It is most often found in small family groups of up to 8 birds, rarely more. It is occasionally found in pairs. Groups are smallest in the non-breeding season.

Cape Penduline Tits roost in the nest, sometimes also in old Southern Masked Weaver nests. During the breeding season, 4 to 8 birds may roost in 1 nest. After breeding, up to 18 birds may roost in a single nest.

Cape Penduline Tits forage in family groups, venturing up to 1.5 km from the roost nest. They forage among the branches of shrubs and trees, gleaning insects from leaves, twigs, and bark. They occasionally hang upside down to access hard-to-reach places. The Cape Penduline Tit probes galls and searches spider webs. Large food items are held with 1 foot and torn into smaller pieces.

The diet consists of insects like beetles and caterpillars, including their eggs and larvae, as well as spiders. They also consume small fruits, including those of honey-thorns (Lycium spp).

In the winter rainfall zone of the Western Cape province, egg-laying has been recorded from July to November but extends from September to March across the rest of its range. The Cape Penduline Tit breeds in response to rainfall. The Cape Penduline Tit is monogamous and nests solitarily. They are facultative cooperative breeders. The nest is built by both sexes and takes around 1 month to construct. Following nest destruction by a predator or severe weather, a replacement nest may be constructed.

The nest is an oval bag, made from plant down, especially the pappuses of Asclepiadaceae, Karoo rosemary/Kapokbos (Eriocephalus spp) and the Camphor Bush Tarchonanthus camphoratus, as well as the fur of hares and the wool of Angora goats and sheep. It is bound together with spider webs. The outside is sometimes decorated with spider egg capsules. The nest is usually whitish, but may be almost black where Karakul and Nama sheep occur, or a patchwork of white, brown and black wool. Near the top is a soft and collapsible entrance spout, below which is a small, curved ledge, used as perch by the incoming bird as it opens the entrance spout with 1 foot. The opening closes automatically, forming a roof over the ledge which creates a ‘false entrance’ to deceive predators. The nest is usually attached at the top and sides with spider web to thin branches inside a thorny tree or shrub. In the Karoo, the nest is usually situated 1 to 3 m above the ground, but up to 7m high in other regions.

4 to 7 plain white eggs are laid per clutch at daily intervals. The incubation period lasts up to 15 days and is done by both sexes. Newly hatched young are altricial, and the nestling period lasts for up to 22 days. The young are fed by both parents and 1 or 2 helpers. Fledglings from the first brood roost in the nest at night along with the eggs and young of the second brood. The Cape Penduline Tit is frequently double-brooded.

Further Resources

This species text is adapted from the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1), 1997.

The use of photographs by Alan Manson, John Todd, Lance Robinson, Rick Nuttall, Roy Earle, Ryan Tippett, Tino Herselman, and Tony Archer is acknowledged.

Other common names: Kaapse kapokvoël (Afrikaans); Unogushana, Unothoyi (Xhosa); Rémiz minute (French); Kaapse Kapokmees (Dutch); Weißstirn-Beutelmeise (German); Pássaro-do-algodão do Cabo (Portuguese).

Recommended citation format: Tippett RM 2026. Cape Penduline Tit Anthoscopus minutus. Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at https://thebdi.org/2026/08/12/cape-penduline-tit-anthoscopus-minutus/

A list of bird species in this format is available here.

Bird identification, birding

Cover image of Southern Tchagra by Attie van Aarde – Stilbaai, Western Cape

Tchagras belong to the Bushshrike family MALACONOTIDAE. Other members of this group include Boubous, Bushshrikes, Puffbacks, and Gonoleks. They are smallish passerine birds with robust bodies, strong legs and feet, and formidable shrike-like bills. Many are very colourful and most species are rather secretive. The majority occur in woodlands, but also in marshes, scrub and Afromontane or tropical forest. They were formerly classed with the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, but are now considered sufficiently distinctive to be separated from that group. The family is endemic to sub-Saharan Africa but is completely absent from Madagascar. The name Malaconotidae alludes to their fluffy back and rump feathers. The family comprises 50 species from 9 genera.

Identification

Southern Tchagra sexes are alike. In adults, the crown is rufous-brown with an olive tinge. The supercilium is greyish in front of the eye and white behind. It is broad and long, almost extending onto the nape. The supercilium is bordered below by a bold, black eye stripe. The ear coverts and cheeks are pale greyish-brown, and the sides of the neck are also greyish-brown. The back is rich olive-brown with an olive-grey rump. Lesser and median wing coverts are rich rufous. The tail is blackish with white tips. The central pair of tail feathers are dark greyish-brown, with fine barring. On the underparts, the chin and throat are greyish white, and the rest of the underparts are grey, tinged olive. The bill is black, and the eyes are rich brown. The legs and feet are grey.

Juveniles resemble adults, but their upper parts are more olive tinged. The supercilium is buff-white and the tail tips are buff-coloured (not white).

The call of the Southern Tchagra is distinctive but could be confused with that of the Brown-crowned Tchagra (Tchagra australis). Visually, the two are also easily mistaken for one another. However, the latter is smaller and has a supercilium bordered above and below by black stripes and with a shorter, weaker bill. The ranges of the two species overlap marginally in KwaZulu-Natal. The Black-crowned Tchagra (Tchagra senegalus) has a black (not brown) crown and white (not grey) underparts.

Status and Distribution

The Southern Tchagra is common in the south of its range, but uncommon to rare in the north. It is endemic to South Africa and eSwatini (Swaziland). The Southern Tchagra occurs from the Mpumalanga escarpment south through western Eswatini to KwaZulu-Natal and west along the coastal plain to about Hermanus and Worcester in the Western Cape. It probably also extends marginally in southern Mozambique. It extends along river valleys up to 200 km inland, especially in the Karoo region of the Eastern Cape, although most records are from within 100km of the coast.

The Southern Tchagra is not threatened. There is some evidence of range expansion in the Western Cape since the 1980s. The Southern Tchagra is likely to have benefited from the spread of alien scrub and thickets in some areas.

Habitat

The Southern Tchagra favours low, near-impenetrable thickets. It inhabits coastal bush and scrub, the edges and clearings of coastal dune forest, thorny, tangled thickets along rivers, brush piles fringing cultivation, and tangled fynbos. In more arid areas, the Southern Tchagra occurs in dense stands of thorn trees Vachellia karoo along river corridors. At the northern limit of its range, it occurs in bracken and scrub at the ecotone between montane grassland and forest.

Behaviour

The Southern Tchagra is resident and sedentary throughout its range. It is usually encountered singly or in pairs and is a secretive bird of dense cover. It is infrequently seen, even where reputed to be quite common and is far more likely to be heard. They sometimes sing from an exposed perch on top of a bush, but dive for cover at the slightest disturbance. The Southern Tchagra rarely spends time in the open except to fly low to the next thicket. Flights are usually short, with the tail spread and with rapid wing-beats interspersed with glides. It typically creeps into the densest vegetation when disturbed.

The Southern Tchagra forages close to or on the ground. It hops and runs about, turning over plant material, occasionally foraging in open grass, but never far from cover. It gleans prey from low branches and stems.

The Southern Tchagra eats arthropods and their larvae, including ants, termite alates, grasshoppers, small beetles, crickets, caterpillars, spiders, millipedes, and snails. It also consumes smaller quantities of berries, small fruits, and seeds.

The Southern Tchagra is a monogamous, solitary nester and is strongly territorial. Territorial interactions involve excited side-to-side movements, bowing, ‘wing-fripping’, tail-cocking and flicking. It may also enact a flight display over bushes during territorial defence. During courtship, the male postures excitedly, bowing his body with tail fanned and head stretched up.

Breeding has been recorded from August to December in the Western Cape and from October to December in KwaZulu-Natal. The nest is a shallow cup of fine plant stems, twigs and rootlets; lined with finer rootlets, sometimes with bits of hair. It is probably built by both sexes. It is usually placed in the fork of a dense shrub, about 1m above the ground. The nest is always well hidden. Old nests are sometimes re-used, with very little refurbishing. Pairs sometimes also build on the old nest of another species.

Two or three eggs are laid per clutch. They are white purple-grey and red-brown spots and scribbles. The incubation period lasts about 16 days. Newly hatched young are altricial and brooded almost constantly for the first days or so. The nestling period takes a further 13 to 16 days and the young are fed by both parents. Broods of the Southern Tchagra are sometimes parasitised by the Jacobin Cuckoo (Clamator jacobinus).

Further Resources

Species text in the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1), 1997.

The use of photographs by Alan Manson, Alex Briggs, Attie van Aarde, Johan Heyns, Johan van Rooyen, Lance Robinson, Pieter la Grange, and Roelof van der Breggen is acknowledged.

Other common names: Grysborstjagra (Afrikaans); Umnguphane (Xhosa); Tchagra du Cap (French); Kaapse Tsjagra (Dutch); Kaptschagra (German); Picanço-assobiador-austral (Portuguese).

A list of bird species which have a structured species text like this one is available here.

Recommended citation format: Tippett RM 2025. Southern Tchagra Tchagra tchagra.  Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at https://thebdi.org/2026/08/05/southern-tchagra-tchagra-tchagra/

Bird identification, birding

 Bird identification, birding, South Africa, Southern Boubou