Terpsiphone viridis
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The African paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone viridis) is a medium-sized passerine bird. The two central tail feathers of the male are extended into streamers that commonly are more than twice as long as the body. The female tail feathers are of moderate length and without streamers. The upper parts of the male body, wings, and tail are boldly coloured in chestnut or rusty shades, but the underparts and the head are variably grey to blue-gray, with the head of the mature male being darker, commonly glossy black with greenish highlights. The beak and other bare areas, including a wattle ring round the eye, match the colour of the surrounding feathers. The female coloration is similar, though not so showy and glossy and with the head paler.
The African paradise flycatcher feeds mainly on insects. It builds a neat cup nest in which it lays a clutch, usually of two or three eggs. It generally inhabits open forest and savanna, and is a locally common resident breeder in Africa south of the Sahara. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed it as being of "least concern".
This is the original bird known as ọ̀kín in Yorùbá language instead of the peacock. Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 2 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 3 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 4 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 5 | Zanzibar City | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 7 | Addis Ababa | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 8 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 9 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 10 | Yaoundé | 🇨🇲 Cameroon |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an African Paradise-Flycatcher sighting in Johannesburg on a given day, based on 386 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 58th most-seen of the 219 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November to March
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report an African Paradise-Flycatcher in Johannesburg on a given day, against under 5% in May to September, the lowest months. Those are among Johannesburg's wettest months, with about 100 mm of rain a month against almost none in July.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most African Paradise-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.
14th of 21
Of the 21 cities where we can rate African Paradise-Flycatcher sightings, Johannesburg ranks 14th at about 10%. The best odds are in Kigali (Rwanda, about 60%), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso, about 60%) and Nairobi (Kenya, about 40%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the African Paradise-Flycatcher that you can see in Johannesburg (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Southern Masked Weaver (about 80%), Common Bulbul (about 80%) and Cape Sparrow (about 80%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the African Paradise-Flycatcher is recorded against all the birds logged in Johannesburg (386 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.
