Chapin's Flycatcher Fraseria lendu Scientific name definitions

12–13 cm. Nominate race is warm olive-brown above; lores and eyering dusky greyish, with narrow pale grey-white ­supral­oral line; ear-coverts as upperparts, but slightly streaked greyish (pale shafts); neck side greyish olive-brown; upperwing darker than back, dark olive-brown, with broad ochreous-brown fringes on remiges and greater upperwing-coverts; tail dark olive-brown, outer five feather pairs with paler brown outer web; chin and throat whitish; breast brownish-grey, shading to pale grey and whitish on lower breast, flanks brownish-grey, becoming darker posteriorly, belly greyish white, thighs greyish brown; underwing-coverts and axillaries very pale grey; iris olive-brown; bill blackish-brown, light grey base to lower mandible; legs dull bluish-grey. Differs from very similar F. olivascens in having dark (not yellow) lower mandible; from Muscicapa adusta in larger size, unstreaked throat side and breast. Sexes alike. Juvenile and immature undescribed. Race itombwensis has slightly darker upperparts than nominate, with breast darker, contrasting more with off-white chin and throat, bill heavier, wing more pointed.

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Dense montane forest, from 1470 m to 2150 m.

None recorded.

Insects; no details available. Found in pairs or in groups of up to four individuals; joins mixed-species foraging flocks. Inhabits canopy, keeping mainly to bare or nearly leafless branches high in trees.

Thin, soft “tsseet, tsseet” and short, buzzy trill, difficult to hear.

Breeds in Mar–Sept (and may lay also in Jan–Feb) in E DRCongo (Itombwe Mts). One nest, probably of this species, was a bulky deep cup of fibres, smoothly lined with finer fibres and feathers, external diameter 10 cm, depth 7·5 cm, internal diameter 5 cm, built in fork of dead liana hanging against trunk of small tree in middle of large pond in forest; nest contained two newly hatched young. No other information available.

VULNERABLE. Restricted-range species: present in Albertine Rift Mountains EBA and in Kakamega and Nandi Forests Secondary Areas. Poorly known; appears to be rare throughout its fragmented range. Total range estimated at 38,000 km²; global population 2500–10,000 individuals, but intense pressure on its habitat probably means that it is declining. Threatened by forest clearance for agriculture and timber. In DRCongo, Lendu Plateau (where known only from the type specimen) is largely deforested, and in Itombwe increased forest clearance for cattle grazing and cultivation is a major threat; neither of these areas is protected. Few recent records from W Kenya, where forests of Kakamega and North Nandi are very seriously threatened by encroachment and by uncontrolled tree-felling for charcoal-making, while intense pressure from cattle grazing affects the structure and regeneration of forest in Kakamega. Only part of Kakamega Forest has some protection, and Nandi is unprotected. In Uganda, the species’ habitat in Bwindi Forest is well protected by the Bwindi-Impenetrable Forest National Park. One sight report from Nyungwe Forest, in Rwanda, requires confirmation.