Red-backed Scrub-Robin Cercotrichas leucophrys Scientific name definitions

14–16 cm; 13–20 g. Nominate race is olive-brown above , shading to rufous on rump, with blackish wings with double white wingbar and buffy margins of flight-feathers; blackish tail, outer feathers with white spots on tips and white outer edges; white supercilium, subocular crescent, submous­tachial and chin to throat, with olive-brown cheek, dark brown lores and eyestripe, and dark malar linking to dark-streaked olive-buff breast and flanks ; whitish rest of underparts; bill blackish, legs pinkish-grey. Sexes similar. Juvenile is like adult, but scaled dark above and below. Race <em>leucoptera</em> is slightly paler, with greyer head , rufous-brown from scapulars to lower back, intensifying to rufous on rump and three-quarters of tail, mostly white edgings of wing-coverts and flight-feathers (large panel), only faintly marked below, more heavily buff-tinged flanks; eluta is paler above than previous; vulpina has less grey crown, more intense rufous on scapulars, less brown and white on tail tips; <em>brunneiceps</em> is larger than preceding races, darker on crown, less white in wing (usually showing two clear wingbars), breast buffy-white; sclateri is like previous but smaller, brighter above, less streaked below; <em>zambesiana</em> is very like nominate, but with tail mostly rufous; <em>munda</em> resembles previous but duller above, tail less rufous; <em>ovamboensis</em> is like last, but greyer above , little rufous in tail.

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Wide variety of bushy and wooded country. Open arid thorn-scrub and woodland, notably where dominated by Acacia or Commiphora and where clumps and thickets of Aloe plants occur; also in dune scrub and edges of dune forest. Usually abundant in sweet-grass areas supporting high numbers of grazing mammals. Also in various broadleaf woodlands dominated by e.g. Terminalia, Colophospermum (mopane) and Baikiaea; less common in miombo (Brachystegia) woodland, where usually restricted to secondary growth. In equatorial rainforest region occurs in regenerating clearings around towns. Sea-level to 1400 m, but to 2200 m in E Africa and at least 1720 in DRCongo. Where sympatric with C. hartlaubi, generally in drier habitats at lower altitudes.

Sedentary almost everywhere; in extreme S of range, regular winter desertion of thornveld occurs in Eastern Cape.

Invertebrates, mainly insects, in particular termites. Of 23 stomachs and faecal samples from S Africa, 69% held termites, 67% ants, 59% beetles (Carabidae, Chrysomelidae, Curculionidae, Scarabaeidae), 31% moths and caterpillars, 27% plant bugs, 18% crickets and grasshoppers, 12% spiders (Salticidae), 10% fruit, 4% parasitic wasps, 4% millipedes, 2% flies and 2% ant-lions. Young fed with caterpillars, small moths and millipedes, Lampyrinae larvae, spiders, damselflies, small grasshoppers, and fly and beetle larvae. Consumes small drupes of Vitex; in winter may probe aloes for nectar. Forages mainly on ground, flipping leaf litter with bill; breaks open termite galleries on leaf debris, and searches droppings of large herbivores for fly larvae and dung beetles; occasionally sallies after alate termites.

Song , often from open perch but also well inside cover, very loud series of often rapid whistled phrases, somewhat repetitive, but geographically rather variable; white-winged populations perform song bouts in which same single phrase repeated, typically as “wuriit sii-titi-yew”; typical phrase of S populations “williedii-bedii-bedii-bediio”; mimicry slight or absent. “Soliloquy song” quiet, from deep in cover, usually during moult but also at other times of year, possibly involves first-year individuals. “Song call”, a whistled “piip-bu go”, heard commonly at sunset as roosting note. Alarm a staccato ratcheting, “skirr” or “skee-ip”, sometimes extended; in anxiety a plaintive “chiiyip” (not reported in S populations).

Mar–May in Ethiopia; Oct–Jan in Rwanda; at any time of year in DRCongo and E Africa, but mainly Apr–May in latter; Oct–Nov in Angola; Oct–Feb in Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia; Sept–Feb (peak Oct–Dec) in S Africa. Territory size based on spacing of singing males 0·75–1 ha. Nest an open cup, usually untidy, sometimes neat, made of dead grass, bark flakes, slender twigs and/or dead leaves, lined with grass rootlets, grass heads and/or leaf skeletons, commonly placed 0·2 m up in grass tussock often near tree base, also in dead grass overlying fallen branches and, in heavily grazed areas, patch of grass in shelter of spiny plants; dead skirts of large aloes (e.g. Aloe marlothii) frequently used; high rate of nest predation results in 2–3 nests built per season in small area. Eggs 2–3 (once 4, mainly 3, average in South Africa 2·7), white, cream or buff with brown and mauve spots and blotches; incubation period 12 days; nestling period 11–12 days; post-fledging dependence probably at least 2 weeks. Occasional brood parasitism by Red-chested Cuckoo (Cuculus solitarius) (1·16% of 259 nests), Black Cuckoo (Cuculus clamosus) and Diederik and Klaas’s Cuckoos (Chrysococcyx caprius and C. klaas) in S Africa. From 93 eggs in 34 clutches, KwaZulu-Natal, 32 fledglings resulted (34% success); nest predation by slender mongoose (Herpestes sanguineus) frequent.

Not globally threatened. The common scrub-robin of much of E & C Africa. Frequent to abundant, with very large range and great ecological flexibility (preferring drier habitat than most congeners); overall numbers high, and unlikely to be greatly affected by habitat changes. Locally common in coastal and SE Gabon and in PRCongo; rare in Sudan. Density in N South Africa reaches 8 pairs/km² in broadleaf woodland, but only 0·45 pairs/km² in acacia woodland; in PRCongo, 20–25 pairs/km² in wooded grassland; in S Mozambique, densities in acacia, mopane, miombo and other broadleaf woodlands respectively 29, 17, 16 and 24 birds/km².