African Stonechat - Definition and Overview

The African Stonechat (Saxicola torquata) is a member of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. In the past it was usually treated in a far wider sense, as the Common Stonechat (Saxicola torquata sensu lato), but recent genetic evidence strongly supports the status as full species for the European Stonechat (S. rubicola, previously S. torquata rubicola) and the Siberian Stonechat (S. maura, previously Saxicola torquata maura).

It has a scattered distribution across much of southern Africa, and more locally in central and sub-Saharan northern Africa north to Senegal and Ethiopia, with outlying populations in the mountains of southwest Arabia, and on Madagascar and Grand Comoro Island. It is non-migratory, moving only locally if at all; as a result, it has developed much regional variation, being divided into 12 subspecies.