IN South Africa, the Collard palm-thrush is confined to the Sabi and Limpopo rivers, with sightings recorded from Letaba camp in Kruger National Park.
Otherwise, this bird is found in the Zambezi River Valley through to East Africa.
These thrush like thickets with palms, mopane woodland and sometimes human settlements where they feed on insects.
They are found in pairs or small groups. They hop around in palm trees like mice or forage on the ground like a robin, often flicking and fanning the tail when on a perch.
When flying, the wings make a ‘prrrup, prrrup’ noise. Their call is a melodious liquid song ‘de dee doodle -oo deedee’ repeated twice and made mostly in early morning and evenings.
The breeding season is from October until March. The nest is a cup-shaped shell of mud lined with woven palm leaf fibres at the base of a palm frond. Two to three greenish-bluish eggs are laid. Incubation and nestling times are unrecorded.
There is no tribal name and in Afrikaans they are known as die palmmorelyster.
