Mountain Chat (Myrmecocichla monticola) | Photos and ID

LCLeast ConcernInvertebrates

GrasslandCavity nestSmall · 33 g

Mountain Chat (Myrmecocichla monticola), photo 3 — Photo: (c) Manuel Schwarz, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

Mountain Chat (Myrmecocichla monticola), photo 4 — Photo: (c) nearwildhelen, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

Mountain Chat (Myrmecocichla monticola), photo 5 — Photo: (c) nearwildhelen, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

Mountain Chat (Myrmecocichla monticola), photo 6 — Photo: (c) Shaun Swanepoel, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

Mountain Chat (Myrmecocichla monticola), photo 7 — Photo: (c) William Stephens, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

Mountain Chat (Myrmecocichla monticola), photo 8 — Photo: (c) David Thompson, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

Mountain Chat (Myrmecocichla monticola), photo 9 — Photo: (c) nearwildhelen, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

Mountain Chat (Myrmecocichla monticola), photo 10 — Photo: (c) Matthew Fainman, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

ID tip

The mountain chat is 18–20 cm long, and like other chats, it has a distinctive tail pattern, with a white rump and outer tail feathers. Its legs and pointed bill are black. The male is very variable in plumage, although the tail pattern and a white shoulder patch are always present. A white and black bird. The body plumage varies from pale grey to almost black, and it may or may not have a white crown to the head. The female is entirely dark brown apart from the white rump and outer tail.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Mountain Chat

One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is September, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Mountain Chat

Regular rangeRare visitor

The map shades 5 countries with regular records, and 1 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

South Africa Namibia Lesotho Angola Eswatini

Recorded as a rare visitor in Botswana.

About the Mountain Chat

The mountain chat or mountain wheatear is a small insectivorous passerine bird that is endemic to southwestern Africa.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Ant-eating ChatMyrmecocichla formicivoraThe species is sexually dimorphic with the male almost entirely black and the female brown with a grey bill and legs.

Sooty ChatMyrmecocichla nigraIt is 15 to 16 cm (6 to 6.25 inches) long, stocky and relatively short-tailed for a chat.

Anteater ChatMyrmecocichla aethiopsThe anteater chat or northern anteater-chat is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae.

Side by side: Ant-eating Chat vs Mountain Chat · Mountain Chat vs Sooty Chat

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