Cossypha dichroa
Silhouette: Martin Bulla, based on François Desbordes' illustration · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The chorister robin-chat (Cossypha dichroa) (previously known as the chorister robin) is a species of bird in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It is found in South Africa and Eswatini. Its distribution stretches from the southern Western Cape through the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Mpumalanga to northern Limpopo. Its natural habitat is evergreen forests, especially in the mist belt region.
The chorister robin-chat was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the flycatchers in the genus Muscicapa and coined the binomial name Muscicapa dichroa. Gmelin specified the locality as South Africa. This was restricted to Knysna in Western Cape province by Phillip Clancey in 1966.
Gmelin based his account on the "Muscicapa bicolor" that had been described and illustrated in 1787 by the Swedish naturalist Anders Sparrman. The hand-coloured engraved plate had been drawn by Jonas Carl Linnerhielm. The combination Muscicapa bicolor had been previously introduced in 1783 by the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert for a different taxon and therefore... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Garden Route National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Addo Elephant National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barcelona Zoo | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 2 | Aquarama Barcelona | 🇪🇸 Spain |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Chorister Robin-Chat sighting in Addo Elephant National Park on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 228th most-seen of the 243 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Chorister Robin-Chat in Addo Elephant National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Chorister Robin-Chat sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 3
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Chorister Robin-Chat sightings, Addo Elephant National Park ranks 3rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Garden Route National Park (South Africa, about 30%) and iSimangaliso Wetland Park (South Africa, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Chorister Robin-Chat is recorded against all the birds logged in Addo Elephant National Park (9 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
