Northern Black-Flycatcher

Northern Black-Flycatcher

Melaenornis edolioides

Silhouette: Martin Bulla, based on François Desbordes' illustration · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability ~20% · Possible
at Abuja

In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%

43 Verified sightings at Abuja
1,738 In all 10 parks From 2019 to 2026
March Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Northern Black-Flycatcher

The northern black flycatcher (Melaenornis edolioides) is a small passerine bird in the flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. This is an insectivorous species which is a resident breeder in tropical Africa from Senegal to Ethiopia and south to Zaire and Tanzania.

The northern black flycatcher is found in moist wooded areas and cultivation. It nests in a hole or reuses the old nest of another species, and lays two or three eggs. Breeding takes place in the wet season. The northern black flycatcher is 20 centimetres (7.9 in) long. It is a large upright long-tailed flycatcher. The adult is uniformly black. Juveniles are blackish-brown with buff scaling.

The long square-ended tail helps to distinguish this species from two other all-black insectivores, the fork-tailed drongo and the shorter-tailed and red-eyed common square-tailed drongo. This flycatcher has a simple musical song and a thin tsee-whee call. Birds of The Gambia by Barlow, Wacher and Disley, ISBN 1-873403-32-1 Wikipedia →

Sounds

Song0:24

Senegal · 2023

© Alain Malengreau · XC862670 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Call0:59

Ethiopia · 2014

© Andrew Spencer · XC267180 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Song0:46

Ghana · 2022

© Peter Boesman · XC719270 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Niokolo-Koba National Park 🇸🇳 Senegal
~50%
2 Queen Elizabeth National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
~40%
3 Masai Mara National Reserve 🇰🇪 Kenya
~10%
4 Lake Mburo National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
~10%
5 Kibale National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
~10%
6 Murchison Falls National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
~10%
7 Kidepo Valley National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
<5%
8 Serengeti National Park 🇹🇿 Tanzania
<5%
9 Virunga National Park 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo
<5%
10 Bwindi Impenetrable National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Kampala 🇺🇬 Uganda
~40%
2 Yaoundé 🇨🇲 Cameroon
~30%
3 Abuja 🇳🇬 Nigeria
~20%
4 Ouagadougou 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso
~20%
5 Serrekunda 🇬🇲 Gambia
<5%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Northern Black-Flycatcher in Abuja?

Possible

About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Northern Black-Flycatcher sighting in Abuja on a given day, based on 43 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 37th most-seen of the 131 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Northern Black-Flycatcher in Abuja?

February–March and August–October

In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Northern Black-Flycatcher in Abuja on a given day, against about 10% in December, the lowest month.

What time of day is best to see a Northern Black-Flycatcher?

Between 9 am and noon

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Northern Black-Flycatcher sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Is Abuja the best place to see a Northern Black-Flycatcher?

3rd of 5

Of the 5 cities where we can rate Northern Black-Flycatcher sightings, Abuja ranks 3rd at about 20%. The best odds are in Kampala (Uganda, about 40%) and Yaoundé (Cameroon, about 30%).

Which relatives of the Northern Black-Flycatcher live in Abuja?

Same family: Muscicapidae

The closest relatives of the Northern Black-Flycatcher that you can see in Abuja (family Muscicapidae, Old World Flycatchers, Robins, and Chats) are Snowy-crowned Robin-Chat (about 10%) and European Pied Flycatcher (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.

Where does the Northern Black-Flycatcher sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Northern Black-Flycatcher is recorded against all the birds logged in Abuja (43 verified sightings), 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.

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