Cossypha dichroa
Silhouette: Martin Bulla, based on François Desbordes' illustration · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
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 |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Chorister Robin-Chat sighting in Garden Route National Park on a given day, based on 490 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 30th most-seen of the 222 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Chorister Robin-Chat in Garden Route National Park on a given day, against about 10% in February and June, the lowest months.
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.
Yes
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Chorister Robin-Chat sightings, Garden Route National Park has the highest daily chance: about 30%. Next come iSimangaliso Wetland Park (South Africa, under 5%) and Addo Elephant National 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 Garden Route National Park (490 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.
