Rosy-throated Longclaw Macronyx ameliae Scientific name definitions

19–20 cm; male 30·3–39·8g, female 30·8–34 g. Distinctive, slender, long-tailed longclaw with pink throat. Male has whitish to buff supercilium, pinkish in front of eye, buffish-white lores and cheeks, cinnamon-brown ear-coverts; blackish above, feathers edged cinnamon, buff or whitish, neck side pale cinnamon with dark olive-brown streaking; wings olive-brown, remiges edged whitish, pinkish or buff, coverts variously edged pink, red, orange, white and buff; tail dark olive-brown, central four feather pairs edged buff to white, T4 with small white tip, T5 with distal third or more white, outermost rectrix mostly white; chin, malar area, throat and foreneck orange, pink or red, bordered by blackish moustachial stripe that meets blackish necklace on upper breast, breastband broadest in centre; breast side buff or whitish with blackish streaking, lower breast and belly as throat but paler; flanks, thighs and undertail-coverts buff, streaked brownish black; underwing-coverts white; iris dark brown; upper mandible brownish or grey, lower mandible paler, particularly at base; legs brownish, sometimes tinged yellow or orange. Distinguished from M. grimwoodi mainly by more deeply coloured throat patch and belly, black breastband. Female differs from male in being paler and more buff, less red, below, necklace and breastband reduced to disjointed streaking. Juvenile has buff scalloping above, and is buff without breastband below; male may take two years to acquire adult plumage; immature female is less red below than adult, white on rectrices duller. Race <em>altanus</em> is smaller and shorter-billed than nominate, has dusky wedge on inner web of outer rectrix extending over proximal two-thirds; <em>wintoni</em> is similar to previous but less heavily streaked black above , forehead and crown with narrower streaks, rump and uppertail-coverts less heavily spotted black, feather edgings above paler, less heavy streaking on breast side and flanks.

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Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Short tussocky, moist or wet grassland , either permanently or seasonally flooded, near swamps, marshes, floodplains of rivers, pans and other open water; also flooded cultivation, fallow rice fields and wet pasture on coast. From sea-level to 2200 m. Inhabits wide range of grassland types, from Panicum repens beds on Zambia-Zimbabwe border (L Kariba) to fine grasses such as Sporobolus by vleis and lakes; usually in treeless grassland, but in Zambia occurs in areas with scattered small acacia trees (Acacia), and in parts of Okavango Delta (Botswana) in areas with small tree islands. In Zambia, occupies wet grassland close to L Kariba whereas M. fuelleborni favours slightly higher, drier grassland nearby; usually in wetter habitats than those preferred by M. croceus and M. capensis, but sometimes occurs with those species on drier ground.