The buff-throated apalis is a species of bird in the family Cisticolidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
Region
Equatorial and East-Central Africa
Typical Environment
It occupies lowland to montane forests, forest edges, riverine thickets, and well-wooded secondary growth across Central and East Africa. It favors dense tangles, vines, and mid-story foliage where it can glean prey from leaves and twigs. The species adapts well to selectively logged forest and wooded farmland margins provided sufficient shrub and understory cover remain. It is common along edges, clearings, and gallery forests, and may extend into moist savanna with thickets. In the Albertine Rift it ascends into montane forest zones.
Altitude Range
0–2500 m
Climate Zone
Tropical
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 1/5
A small, active cisticolid, the buff-throated apalis often travels in pairs or small family parties and frequently joins mixed-species flocks in forest edges and secondary growth. Pairs commonly perform antiphonal duets, with male and female alternating phrases rapidly. They flick and fan their tails while foraging, revealing contrasting white outer tail feathers. Several subspecies show subtle differences in tone of the buff throat and intensity of upperpart coloration across its wide range.
Temperament
social and active
Flight Pattern
short rapid wingbeats
Social Behavior
Usually seen in pairs or small family groups, often accompanying mixed-species foraging flocks. Pairs maintain small territories and keep contact with soft calls and duets. Nesting is in a neat cup placed in dense tangles or shrubs, with both adults participating in care.
Migratory Pattern
Resident
Song Description
A fast, high-pitched series of thin notes, often delivered as an antiphonal duet with the female answering the male almost immediately. Calls include sharp tsee or tik notes and short trills, repeated in quick sequences.
Plumage
Olive to olive-green upperparts with a greyer head, contrasting buff to buffy-ochre throat and upper breast, and whitish belly. Tail is dark with conspicuous white outer tail feathers often flashed in flight. Underparts are clean and lightly toned, with fine, neat feathering typical of apalises.
Diet
Primarily small arthropods such as caterpillars, beetles, hemipterans, spiders, and other soft-bodied invertebrates. It gleans prey methodically from foliage, twigs, and vine tangles, occasionally sallying short distances to snatch disturbed insects. During the breeding season it increases its intake of larvae and other protein-rich prey to feed nestlings.
Preferred Environment
Forages in dense understory and mid-canopy layers along forest edges, clearings, and riverine strips. It frequently uses vine tangles, lianas, and secondary growth, and moves with mixed-species flocks through suitable shrub layers.
