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Parisoma layardi (Layard's tit-babbler) 

Grystjeriktik [Afrikaans]; Layards meeszanger [Dutch]; Parisome de Layard [French]; Layards meisensänger [German]; Felosa-chapim de Layard [Portuguese]

Life > Eukaryotes > Opisthokonta > Metazoa (animals) > Bilateria > Deuterostomia > Chordata > Craniata > Vertebrata (vertebrates)  > Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates) > Teleostomi (teleost fish) > Osteichthyes (bony fish) > Class: Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish) > Stegocephalia (terrestrial vertebrates) > Tetrapoda (four-legged vertebrates) > Reptiliomorpha > Amniota > Reptilia (reptiles) > Romeriida > Diapsida > Archosauromorpha > Archosauria > Dinosauria (dinosaurs) > Saurischia > Theropoda (bipedal predatory dinosaurs) > Coelurosauria > Maniraptora > Aves (birds) > Order: Passeriformes > Family: Sylviidae > Genus: Parisoma

Parisoma layardi (Layard's tit-babbler)  Parisoma layardi (Layard's tit-babbler) 

Layard's tit-babbler. [photo Sion Stanton ©]

Layard's tit-babbler, Sani Pass, South Africa. [photo Trevor Hardaker ©]

Distribution and habitat

Endemic to southern Africa, occurring from western Namibia to South Africa. It is generally common, preferring shrubland in mountainous areas and arid fynbos, occasionally moving into gardens in rural villages in the Karoo.

Distribution of Layard's tit-babbler in southern Africa, based on statistical smoothing of the records from first SA Bird Atlas Project (© Animal Demography unit, University of Cape Town; smoothing by Birgit Erni and Francesca Little). Colours range from dark blue (most common) through to yellow (least common). See here for the latest distribution from the SABAP2.  

Food 

It mainly eats invertebrates gleaned from the leaves and branches of low shrubs, supplemented with fruit. The following food items have been recorded in its diet:

Breeding

  • The nest is a small cup built of grass and silky fibres from the bark of Asclepias buchenaviana (Lammerlat), secured together with spider web, with thicker walls than the nest of the Chestnut-vented tit-babbler. It is typically placed in a fork near the base of a bush, often in Rhizogum obovatum (Simple-leaved rhizogum) in the southern Nama Karoo.
  • Egg-laying season is from March-December, from September to November.
  • It lays 2-3 eggs, which are probably incubated for 13-15 days.
  • Both adults care for the young, who leave the nest after roughly 15 days.

Threats

Not threatened.

References

  • Hockey PAR, Dean WRJ and Ryan PG 2005. Roberts - Birds of southern Africa, VIIth ed. The Trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund, Cape Town.