Ghion Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
January 2016

The African Paradise-flycatcher is distributed throughout much of Africa south of the Sahara and in some areas of the Arabian Peninsula. See the distribution map at Birdlife International. It is found in a variety of woodland habitats but is seldom seen in forest or scrub.

It feeds mainly on insects and spiders as well as small berries. Photo 1 shows a bird with a captured dragonfly.

The male has a long tail which is lacking in the female. All these pictures are of males. There are about 10 sub-species and the one found in Ethiopia is T. v. ferreti which often shows this white tail unlike other sub-species. There is also a white morph where white replaces the rufous.