About Terpsiphone viridis (Statius Muller, 1776)
The adult male African paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone viridis) measures about 17 cm (6.7 in) in length; its very long tail streamers double this total length. The male has a black head, neck, and underparts, with chestnut wings and tail, and a prominent white wingbar. Females have a browner tint to their underparts, and lack both the wingbar and tail streamers. Young birds are similar to females, but their plumage is duller. Male plumage shows considerable variation across some regions. A plumage morph of this species exists where the male's chestnut-colored plumage areas are replaced with white, and some subspecies have black tail streamers. This species readily hybridizes with the genetically similar Rufous-vented paradise flycatcher. It is also closely related to the red-bellied paradise flycatcher, and hybrids between these two have underparts with a mixture of black and red. The African paradise flycatcher occurs across most of Africa south of the Sahara Desert, and also on the Arabian Peninsula. Its typical habitats include savannah woodland, open grassland with scattered isolated trees, plantations, open woodland, and scrubland.
