young bird begging for food while foraging with an adult

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

song and sharp calls of an adult with young ones nearby. Decending background song heard after the first strophe of the Crombec is a mystery: different song of a different individual of the same species or different species?

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

bird gleaning for insects on a small thorny tree near a fence

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

calls from the same bird as in XC277070, in response to playback.

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:yes

Finch-like trill came from above my head in a small tree. A small group of Bronze Mannikins were in the same tree.

bird-seen:no

playback-used:no

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

sharp call of an adult with young ones nearby

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

foraging

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

Unusual sub-song introduction to the trill call typical of S. w. whytii and S. w. minima. This call is typical of birds in miombo woodland from Mulanje, Malawi and east through northern Mozambique and southern and eastern Tanzania north to coastal Kenya. But birds west of the highlands in Malawi and the Eastern Arc Mountains (Tanzania) through Kenya to Ethiopia have a very different call and are much closer to Long-billed Crombec, S. rufescens. I have no doubt that the whytii complex is polyphyletic as currently recognized but further studies are needed to tease out the relationships between the various forms of 'whytii' and rufescens. There are probably at least 3 species involved.

bird-seen:no

playback-used:no

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

bird-seen:yes

playback-used:no

heard calling on a fig tree

bird-seen:no

playback-used:no