Capped Wheatear ( Oenanthe pileata, family: Muscicapidae)

capped wheatear kruger national park birds The Capped Wheatear (Latin name Oenanthe pileata) is described in Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition. This bird has a unique Roberts number of 587 and you will find a full description of this bird on page 950 also a picture of the Capped Wheatear on page 961. The Capped Wheatear belongs to the family of birds classified as Muscicapidae.

The map of the Kruger you see on this page shows the areas (coloured orange) where this bird has been identified. The basic information was provided by the Avian Demographic Unit based at UCT and I created the maps from that information ... the green dots show the locations of the various Kruger National Park Rest Camps

The Capped Wheatear is neither Endemic or near Endemic to the Kruger National Park. It is however a resident

In terms of distribution of the Capped Wheatear in the Kruger National Park you may not see it in all areas. Capped Wheatear : see above distribution map.

Identification assistance for this avian species ...

One of the first indicators to take note of when trying to identify a bird is it relative size. For example how big is the bird compared to a well known familiar bird. The Capped Wheatear is a small bird about the size of a house sparrow. Do not take this relative indicator as anything other than a rough easy to remember indicator. It is not a accurate visualization. The height of the Capped Wheatear is about 14 cms and its weight is about 20 gms

You will find that the male Capped Wheatear plumage and colours are different to that of the female Capped Wheatear

  • Head is brown.
  • Eye is brown.
  • Bill is black.
  • Throat is white.
  • Back is brown.
  • Legs are black.

This bird has normally proportioned leg length.

Main diet items for this bird ...

The Capped Wheatear feeds on the ground, and on the wing mainly

Invertebrates

Seeds

Breeding and nesting habits for this bird ...

The Capped Wheatear takes on more than a single mate (it is bigamous).

The nesting habit of Capped Wheatear is extra limital

Habitat and flocking behaviour for this bird ...

The preferred habitats for Capped Wheatear are: grasslands

You will normally see the Capped Wheatear by itself rather than in the company of birds of the same species.

Names of this avian species in other languages ...

Xhosa ... Inkotyeni/Isixaxabesha

Zulu ... iSangwili

Afrikaans ...Hoveldskaapwagter

German ... Erdschmtzer

Portuguese ... Chasco-de-barrete

French ... Traquet du Cap

Dutch ... Aardtapuit

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For in-depth birding information please refer to these authoritative avian references ...

Robert's 7th edition number ... 587

The main reference source for this data was "Roberts - Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition" . Other references were "Newmans Birds of the Kruger Park" by Keith Newman published circa 1980 . Names in foreign languages were obtained from the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town website , www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za