(myrmecocichla tholloni)
The Congo Moor Chat is a localised chat restricted to the grassy plateau of central Africa. Within its upland grasslands it is locally common, we found several pars in the grasslands around Leconi.
It is a rather odd looking bird which can hardly be described as elegant. The sequence of photos here of the two birds on the bare tree is possibly unique. It shows a pair of birds mating - the female is on the tip of the tree whilst the male flies in and mates with her. It all happened very quickly - the 6 frames per second of the Canon 50D was not quite fast enough to catch all of the action. Note the typically grey gloomy sky of West Africa.