The same species occur in similar habitats in the middle Zambezi and Luangwa Valleys, alongside the Natal Francolin, Barred long-tailed Cuckoo, Sombre bulbul, Eastern Bearded Scrub Robin and Livingstone's Flycatcher. Generally smaller areas of thicket occur over much, but not all of the plateau. However, they have a diverse avifauna that is largely different from that of the neighbouring woodlands. In forest, as in miombo woodland, many of the smaller birds gather into mixed-species foraging bird parties. Some birds occur regularly at forest edge or in such near forest habitats as dense woodland, well developed thickets or rich vegetation on termite mounds.
Riverbanks often support a growth of riparian forest.
North of about 14 degrees, patches of wet evergreen forest, often called mushitu , grow on moist ground along rivers or at their headwaters. Dry evergreen forest in northern Zambia is generally less well developed than mushitu but, where rich enough, supports many of the same birds. The dry Cryptosepalum forests of the north-west support an additional species, the Gorgeous Bushshrike. The Marsh Tchagra is one of a number of birds that occupy the dense, tangled bracken-briar at the outer edge of forest in northern Zambia. Despite the few montane forests in Zambia, a large number of montane forest birds occur here.