Cape Crombec

About the Cape Crombec

The long-billed crombec or Cape crombec (Sylvietta rufescens) is an African warbler. The long-billed crombec breeds in southern Africa from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Tanzania southwards to South Africa.

This is a common species in fynbos, open woodland, savannah and dry Acacia scrub. The long-billed crombec is a small, nearly tailless bird 12 cm long and weighing around 16 g. Its upperparts are brownish grey-brown, and there is a pale grey supercilium, separated from the whitish throat by a dark eye stripe. The whitish breast shades into the buff belly. The long slightly curved bill is blackish.

The sexes are similar, and the juvenile resembles the adult. The call is a variable series of trilled notes including trreee-rriiit trreee-rriiit and a harsh pttt. The long-billed crombec's nest is a large, hanging bag of grasses, spider webs, and plant fibres, which is attached to the lower limbs of a tree, often an Acacia. The one to three white eggs are incubated for two weeks to hatching, and the chicks are fed by both parents for another two weeks to fledging. This territorial species is monogamous, pairing for life.

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