Black-chested Prinia

Common, near-endemic resident. Distinctive in breeding plumage (summer) with yellow or white underparts. At other times the black breast-band is either absent or vestigial and the underparts pale sulphurous-yellow. The call is a loud, much-repeated ‘chip-chip chip…’; also an occasional ‘zrrrrt-zrrrrt-zrrrrt’; more scratchy and buzzy than that of widely overlapping [Tawny-flanked Prinia]. Pairs and small family parties occur in dry thornveld, scrub, rank grass and suburbia.