Chats, Old World Flycatchers, and Allies
African Stonechat
Saxicola torquatus
- Family
- Chats, Old World Flycatchers, and Allies (Muscicapidae)
- Order
- Passeriformes
Overview
The African stonechat or common stonechat (Saxicola torquatus) is a species of the Old World flycatcher family (Muscicapidae), inhabiting sub-Saharan Africa and adjacent regions. Like the other chats, it was long assigned to the thrush family (Turdidae), to which the chats are convergent. Its scientific name refer to its appearance and habitat and means "collared rock-dweller": Saxicola from Latin saxum ("rock") + incola ("one who dwells in a place"), torquatus, Latin for "collared".
In the past S. torquatus usually referred to the entire "common stonechat" superspecies and some sources still keep it that way, but all available evidence strongly supports full species status for the European (S. rubicola) and the Siberian stonechat (S. maurus) of temperate Eurasia, in addition to the island-endemics Fuerteventura chat (S. dacotiae) and Réunion stonechat (S. tectes) which were never unequivocally accepted into S. torquatus.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Range and habitat
Countries
- Angola
- Austria
- Botswana
- Burundi
- Cameroon
- Chad
- Comoros
- Côte d'Ivoire
- Djibouti
- DR Congo
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- Finland
- Gabon
- Guinea
- Kenya
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Palestine
- Republic of the Congo
- Rwanda
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- South Africa
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Switzerland
- Tanzania
- Uganda
- Yemen
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: African stonechat
- eBird: sightings, maps and photos
- xeno-canto: sound recordings
- Birds of the World: full species account (subscription)
- IUCN Red List (threat status)
- AviList global checklist (taxonomy)
Last updated September 29, 2026.


