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 South Luangwa National Park on a given day, based on 57 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 121st most-seen of the 257 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.
March, May, October and December
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report an African Paradise-Flycatcher in South Luangwa National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July–September and November, the lowest months.
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.
40th of 51
Of the 51 parks where we can rate African Paradise-Flycatcher sightings, South Luangwa National Park ranks 40th at about 10%. The best odds are in Arusha National Park (Tanzania, about 50%), Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Uganda, about 40%) and Nairobi National Park (Kenya, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the African Paradise-Flycatcher that you can see in South Luangwa National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Meves's Glossy-starling (about 80%), White-browed Sparrow-Weaver (about 70%) and Blue-breasted Cordonbleu (about 60%), 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 South Luangwa National Park (57 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.
