White-tailed Blue Flycatcher Elminia albicauda Scientific name definitions

14 cm; 6–9 g. Small, dainty and slender blue flycatcher with blunt crest and long graduated tail . Male is almost entirely blue, crown streaked whitish, with pale underparts with grey breast; lores black ; wing feathers blackish, broadly edged blue, tail with extensive white outer feathers; iris dark brown; bill black; legs brownish-black to black. Distinguished from very similar E. longicauda by duller or grey-blue upperparts, whiter underparts with grey wash across breast, white outer tail feathers, pale streaks on crown. Female is like male but slightly duller above, slightly whiter below, less grey on breast, and with smaller crest and slightly shorter tail. Juvenile is like female, but with slate-grey cheeks faintly streaked paler, blackish-brown wing-coverts washed with blue, and flight-feathers, tertials and tail tipped white.

SW Uganda S through Rift Valley to SW Tanzania, Malawi and N Mozambique (Tete district) and W to S DRCongo, N Zambia and C Angola; also N Tanzania (Bugarama and Kifunzo).

Lowland and submontane evergreen forest, riverine woodland, often in gulleys and along highland streams, forest roads and edges, also trees in scrub and savanna woodland, secondary and riparian forest, dense brachystegia (Brachystegia), miombo and bamboo. Occurs to 2000 m in E DRCongo and Uganda, to 2100 in Malawi and to 2500 m in Rwanda; in E of range usually 1200–2450 m but rare below 1600 m; overlaps with E. longicauda between 1600 m and 1800 m in SW Uganda and N Angola.

Largely resident; may make short-distance altitudinal movements from higher parts of range (e.g. Malawi) in non-breeding season.

Food consists mostly of small invertebrates, including ants (Hymenoptera), termites (Isoptera), beetles (Coleoptera), flies (Diptera), moths (Lepidoptera) and small spiders (Araneae). Usually in pairs or small groups, including mixed-species foraging flocks. Forages at middle levels in open canopy, flitting between branches and dashing and twisting in pursuit of insects. Very active and continually on the move in typical bowing and curtseying manner, with tail spread.

Song  a short, pleasant but rather jumbled warbling series of jingling notes, introduced and concluding with “tip-tip” notes. Contact note a low, sharp “tip-tip” or “chit-chit”; also a whistled chirping  “teereet” or “chiri”.

Season Jan and Aug–Sept in Uganda, Oct–Dec in Malawi, Sept and Nov in Zambia and Oct–Dec in DRCongo; Aug–Dec in Angola. Monogamous; territorial. Nest a small or compact cup of lichens, plant and wood fibres and feathers, up to 9 m from ground in small fork of slender branch, held firmly in place with gossamer. Clutch 2 eggs, glossy white or buffish, clouded with olive or densely speckled greyish-green or brown and grey; incubation by female; no information on duration of incubation and fledging periods.

Not globally threatened. Uncommon or locally common. Fairly common in Uganda and N Angola. Present in several protected areas, e.g. Dzalanyama Forest Reserve (Malawi).