The striped flufftail (''Sarothrura affinis'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the

flufftail Flufftails (genus ''Sarothrura'') are small birds related to rails and finfoots. There are nine species, seven of which are distributed across sub-Saharan Africa, with the remaining two in Madagascar. The genus was long placed with the rail fami ...

family

Sarothruridae Sarothruridae is a family of small- to medium-sized ground-living birds found mostly in Madagascar and sub-Saharan Africa, with the genus ''Rallicula'' being restricted to New Guinea and the Moluccas. The species in this family were once consider ...

. It is also known as the red-tailed flufftail. The species is closely related to the

Madagascar flufftail The Madagascar flufftail (''Sarothrura insularis'') is a species of bird in the family Sarothruridae. It is endemic to Madagascar. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest A forest is an area of land dominated ...

. The species has a

disjunct distribution In biology, a taxon with a disjunct distribution is one that has two or more groups that are related but considerably separated from each other geographically. The causes are varied and might demonstrate either the expansion or contraction of a s ...

across the

Afromontane The Afromontane regions are subregions of the Afrotropical realm, one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms, covering the plant and animal species found in the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. The Afromontane regions ...

of southeastern Africa, with two subspecies. The nominate subspecies ''S. a. affinis'' is found in eastern South Africa and Eswatini. ''S. a. antonii'', named for German ornithologist

Anton Reichenow Anton Reichenow (1 August 1847 in Charlottenburg – 6 July 1941 in Hamburg) was a German ornithologist and herpetologist. Reichenow was the son-in-law of Jean Cabanis, and worked at the Natural History Museum of Berlin from 1874 to 1921. He wa ...

, is found in eastern Zimbabwe and Mozambique, Malawi, southern Tanzania, Kenya and the south of South Sudan.Taylor, B. & Kirwan, G.M. (2017). Striped Flufftail (Sarothrura affinis). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/53574 on 5 March 2017). The striped flufftail is a small rail-like birds, long. Males weight between , no information exists about the weight of females. The wingspan is . The male has a chestnut head, white throat, and black body streaked with white with a yellowish wash. The female is brown with lighter barring and a pale belly. ''S. a. antonii'' is different from the nominate in having the chestnut of the head coming down to the breast, and in being larger. The species occupies a range of habitats and altitudes, being found at sea level in South Africa and up to in Kenya. The species is mostly found in alpine grasslands, usually near water, and requires good cover with some clear ground. In South Africa, at lower altitudes, it is found in

fynbos Fynbos (; meaning fine plants) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. This area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean clim ...

. The striped flufftail feeds on a range of insects including beetles, caterpillars, ants, termites, flies, crickets and bugs, as well as spiders and seeds. They typically feed in open ground. Breeding happens during the local rainy season. Pairs hold territories year-round, with a smaller breeding territory and a larger home range. The nest is a bowl of dry grass set in a grass tuft.

References

External links

* Striped flufftail
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
{{DEFAULTSORT:flufftail, striped striped flufftail striped flufftail Taxonomy articles created by Polbot