African stonechat

Male African stonechat, Saxicola torquata axillaris, Taita Hills, Taveta, Kenya, April 2013

Unexpectedly, this stonechat population is not breeding right now…

Thus, males are not as territorial as usual… thus, they are not as responsive to our simulated intruder, a stuffed decoy within their territory. They also do not sing at all during the nonbreeding season. thus, we could not record their specific song dialect. thus, we could not playback their song close to the stuffed decoy to increase the territorial behavior. thus, the birds were not likely to sit on our trap close to the simulated intruder…

and thus not been caught easily.

THUS we refined our patience dramatically!

… but in the end we succeeded happily!!