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Chaetops

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The rockjumpers are medium-sized insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the genus Chaetops, which constitutes the entire family Chaetopidae. The two species, the Cape rockjumper, Chaetops frenatus, and the Drakensberg rockjumper, Chaetops aurantius, are endemic residents of southern Africa. The Cape rockjumper is a resident of the West Cape and south-west East Cape, and the orange-breasted (or Drakensberg) rockjumper is distributed in the Lesotho Highlands and areas surrounding them in South Africa. The two rockjumpers have been treated as separate species but differ in size and plumage. The ran

Species

Cape Rockjumper

GENUS

  1. KingdomAnimalia
  2. PhylumChordata
  3. ClassAves
  4. OrderPasseriformes
  5. FamilyChaetopidae
Conservationnear threatened
Observations579
Observations recorded7,835

via GBIF

Wikidata facts

Image
Cape Rock-Jumper (Chaetops frenatus).jpg
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taxon name
Chaetops
Commons category
Chaetops
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via Wikidata · CC0

~3 min read

Article

6 sections
Contents
  • Taxonomy and systematics
  • Description
  • Behaviour and ecology
  • Diet and feeding
  • Breeding
  • References

The rockjumpers are medium-sized insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the genus Chaetops, which constitutes the entire family Chaetopidae. The two species, the Cape rockjumper, Chaetops frenatus, and the Drakensberg rockjumper, Chaetops aurantius, are endemic residents of southern Africa. The Cape rockjumper is a resident of the West Cape and south-west East Cape, and the orange-breasted (or Drakensberg) rockjumper is distributed in the Lesotho Highlands and areas surrounding them in South Africa. The two rockjumpers have been treated as separate species but differ in size and plumage. The ranges do not overlap, but come close to doing so. Also found in the mountain of a small town Middelburg in the eastern Cape where they are protected because they are endangered species.

==Taxonomy and systematics== Originally, these birds were placed in the thrushes, and they have also been placed with the Old World warblers and the babblers, but recent DNA studies indicate these birds are actually members of a basal group of oscines within the infraorder Passeri along with their sister-family the rockfowl (Picatharthidae),

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