page_title: White-starred robin
section_title: Breeding
hierarchical_section_title: White-starred robin / Behaviour / Breeding
caption_attribution_description: Red-chested Cuckoo (Cuculus solitarius) perched in a tree "Afrikaans common name: Piet-my-vrou. Named after it's distinctive 3 note call. Piet-my-vrou translates to Peter-my-wife . This bird posed for long, very unusual for a cuckoo. Unfortunately I was all thumbs so I took half the pictures with no flash and although they were better composed they are just too dark. Taken at Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens."
context_page_description: The white-starred robin is a species of bird in the Old World flycatcher and chat family Muscicapidae. It is also sometimes more simply called the starred robin. It is monotypic within the genus Pogonocichla. There are around twelve subspecies. The species is found in East and southern Africa. It is a forest species, occurring in montane forest in the north of its range but closer to sea level further south. This is a brightly coloured robin with a bright yellow breast and belly, a slate coloured head with spots on the eyes and throat and blueish wings.
  The white-starred robin gives a range of calls that vary geographically. The diet is dominated by insects, although some fruit is taken as well. It is a territorial and seasonal breeder that lays up to three eggs in a domed nest. The generic name Pogoncichla is derived from the Greek pogon for beard, a reference to the white spots on the throat and face, and kikhle for thrush. Similarly the specific name stellata and the species' common name are also derived from the facial spots.
context_section_description: The white-starred robin is a seasonal breeder, although the exact timing varies across its range. Birds have been recorded breeding or seen in breeding condition in August to May in the DR Congo, August to November in Rwanda. They in all month in East Africa, but with an attitudinal shift insofar as lowland birds prefer the wet season and highland birds breed in the dry season. In Zambia they breed from September to June, but only from September to January in Malawi. In South Africa the breeding season is September to December.
  White-starred robins are territorial breeders, with the territories varying in size from 0.5 to 0.75 ha. The nest is unusual for the family in that it is a domed construction, built out of dead leaves, rootlets, moss and tendrils, and lined with leaf skeletons and fine plant material. The nest is well hidden, usually on sloping ground against a trunk or rock, but sometimes off the ground on a rotting trunk rock or earth bank. The nest takes seven days to construct, and is built by the female alone. Between two and three eggs are laid, with two being more common in the tropics and three being typical further south. Eggs are laid on consecutive days with incubation only beginning once the final egg has been laid. Incubation is carried out by the female alone. Incubation lasts between 16 and 18 days, after which chicks fledge around 13 to 15 days after hatching. The chicks remain dependent upon the parents for up to 42 days after hatching.
  Nests are raided by small mammals such as shrews and rodents, as well as more rarely by large mammals like civets and monkeys. They are also targeted by brood parasites, principally red-chested cuckoos (six out of 85 nests checked in South Africa) but also other species like African emerald cuckoos.
caption: Red-chested cuckoos will parasitise the nests of white-starred robins.
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