Bird watching in Africa - Moorland Chat, Pinarochroa sordida, Alpine Chat, Hill Chat

Length: 14 - 15cm
Wingspan:
Weight: 18 - 23 g
Longevity:
Distinctive Feature •
Similar Species • Familiar Chat - has rufous outer tail feathers instead of white. From opus at www.birdforum.net the forum for wild birds and birding.
Female / Male • From opus at www.birdforum.net the forum for wild birds and birding.

The Moorland Chat (Pinarochroa sordida), also known as the Alpine Chat or Hill Chat, is a species of songbird in the Old World flycatcher family. It is endemic to north-east Africa where it is common in its habitat. It lives at high altitudes on moors and grassland, usually above 3,400 m, but can live as low as 2,100 m. It has a short tail and long legs. It is bold and will approach people.

The chat was first discovered on Mount Elgon on the Uganda-Kenya border by Jackson. The English geographer Halford Mackinder brought back the same bird from Mount Kenya in 1899. He presented a paper on the first ascent to the Royal Geographical Society in 1900. The scientific results of his expedition were discussed in detail afterwards.

A very curious little bird was found by Mr Jackson on Mount Elgon at a height of 11,000 feet, and I remember saying to Mr. Mackinder that he was bound to find the same sort of little chat on Mount Kenya, at a height of 11,000 feet. This he did, and it was the same species as the Mount Elgon bird, an ordinary-looking little brown chat, with a good deal of white in the tail.

— Dr Bowdler Sharpe, A Journey to the Summit of Mount Kenya, British East Africa: Discussion

The moorland chat was usually placed in the genus Cercomela, but molecular phylogenetic studies published in 2010 and 2012 found that the species was not closely related to birds in Cercomela or to birds in the closely related genus Oenanthe. The moorland chat was therefore assigned to its own monotypic genus Pinarochroa which had been introduced by the Swedish zoologist Carl Jakob Sundevall in 1872.

The genus name Pinarochroa is derived from the Greek word pinaros meaning "dirty" and khroos, khroas meaning "coloured". The specific epithet sordida is from the Latin sordidus meaning "shabby" or "dirty".

Range map from www.oiseaux.net - Ornithological Portal Oiseaux.net

www.oiseaux.net is one of those MUST visit pages if you're in to bird watching. You can find just about everything there

Taxonomy
There are a number of recognised subspecies:

• P. s. sordida High altitude moorlands of Ethiopia

• P. s. ernesti North Kenya (Mt. Kenya and Aberdare Mountains)

• P. s. rudolfi North Kenya (Mt. Elgon moorlands) and adjacent East Uganda

• P. s. olimotiensis High altitude moorlands of North Tanzania (Crater Highlands)

Length: 14 - 15cm

Wingspan:

Weight: 18 - 23 g

Longevity:

Distinctive Feature

•

Similar Species

• Familiar Chat - has rufous outer tail feathers instead of white.

From opus at www.birdforum.net the forum for wild birds and birding.

Female / Male

•

From opus at www.birdforum.net the forum for wild birds and birding.

Listen to the Moorland Chat

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Natural vocalization; calls from a pair of birds aggressively interacting as they moving through low bushes in brushy grassland.

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia