Black-capped Rufous-Warbler Bathmocercus cerviniventris Scientific name definitions

13 cm; 14–18 g. A thickset, short-winged warbler with strong legs and rather short, graduated tail of ten narrow feathers. Male has head, neck and centre of breast black; upperparts warm brown, wing and tail dark brown, wing feathers with warm brown edges; breast side tawny-orange, merging with tawny-buff belly, flanks and undertail-coverts; iris reddish brown; bill black; legs blue-grey. Female has chin and patch on side of throat off-white, breast-side duller, tawny-buff. Juvenile plumage poorly known, throat and breast possibly olive-brown when recently fledged; immature similar to female, but with whitish throat.

Locally in Upper Guinea forest from Sierra Leone and SE Guinea E to C Ivory Coast and S Ghana.

Thick undergrowth of primary and secondary forest at both lowland and submontane altitudes; gallery forest; damp hollows with secondary vegetation by creeks and streams; open sites near old clearings within mature forest.

Presumably resident.

Diet mainly small insects and other invertebrates, including beetles (Coleoptera), grasshoppers (Orthoptera), mantis nymphs (Mantodea), spiders (Araneae); a small snail (Gastropoda) also recorded. Forages in pairs within dense cover near ground.

Male song a loud, penetrating, varied whistled phrase of 2–3 notes, repeated many times at c. 3-second intervals, “whee-ee-hew, whee-ee-hew”, “weeeu-heee, weeeu-heee”, “tiuuu-tiuu-whu, tiuuu-tiuu-whu”. Female utters scolding “trr-trr-trrt”.

Recently fledged chick in late Jun in Sierra Leone, suggesting laying in May. No other information.

Not globally threatened. Currently considered Data Deficient. Restricted-range species: present in Upper Guinea Forests EBA. Distribution fragmented; known from only a few areas. Locally common in Sierra Leone, also in Guinea (on Ziama Massif); locally common in Liberia, where population estimated to be 60,000 pairs, and frequent Mt Nimba. Rare in Ghana, only one or two old records. Thought to be less susceptible to logging pressure owing to its specific habitat requirements.