Macronyx croceus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
The yellow-throated longclaw (Macronyx croceus) is a species of bird in the family Motacillidae. Despite sharing no recent common ancestor, the yellow-throated longclaw and its sister species in Macronyx are very similar in both coloration and behavior to the meadowlarks of North America, an example of convergent evolution.
They have yellow underparts and a black "bib" on the upper chest. They may be distinguished from the closely related pangani longclaw by its yellow under tail-coverts, which the pangani lacks. The pangani also has an orange throat, whereas the yellow-throated does not.
Longclaws are generally solitary, except when found as mated pairs. It is found in Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitats are dry savanna, subtropical... Wikipedia →
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-throated Longclaw sighting in Harare on a given day, based on 49 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 91st most-seen of the 213 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-throated Longclaw in Harare on a given day, against under 5% in April and September–October, the lowest months. That is one of Harare's wettest months, with about 180 mm of rain against almost none in August.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-throated Longclaw sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 9
Of the 9 cities where we can rate Yellow-throated Longclaw sightings, Harare ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Kigali (Rwanda, about 30%), Mombasa (Kenya, about 20%) and Dar es-Salaam (Tanzania, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-throated Longclaw is recorded against all the birds logged in Harare (49 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.
