Crested Malimbe (Malimbus malimbicus) — Vorstman's Guide to the Birds of Southern Africa

Voice

Dry mechanical rasps, dry chatters and complex combinations of the two; also a hoarse chrrr and a short chik contact call.

Listen: SongXC1011378

Recording: Matthew L. Brady — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto

Identification

17–18 cm, stocky, with a heavy, pointed black bill. The male is glossy black with a scarlet crown and nape, a short, often flattened red crest that is sometimes barely visible from the side, and a red throat and upper breast; the forehead and a small mask around the eye are black, as are the undertail coverts. The female resembles the male, but the crown is black and the red is largely restricted to the chin, throat and upper breast. Juveniles are duller, with brownish-red or orange on the head.

Confusion species

The Red-Headed Malimbe (Malimbus rubricollis) is larger and has a black throat and a black face; the red is confined to the crown, nape and sides of the neck. The male Vieillot's Black Weaver (Ploceus nigerrimus) is wholly black without red and has a yellow eye. The combination of red throat, black undertail coverts and red crested crown rules out all other weavers in the region for males.

Habitat

Humid lowland and hill forest, forest edges, secondary forest, riverine forest and plantations with shade trees and oil palms, sometimes into village yards. It forages in pairs or small groups on thick branches and among creepers, often in mixed flocks, searching bark and leaves for insects. The nest is a hanging ball with a long entrance tube on a branch or palm frond.

Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.

Range and movements

In the region only in northern Angola: in Cabinda and in the forest remnants of Uíge, Cuanza Norte and northern Bengo, south to about the Luanda area. Beyond the region in the Guineo-Congolian forest from Sierra Leone and Guinea through Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon to DR Congo and Uganda.

Resident
dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Density map from the occurrence records of GBIF (2006-09-01 – 2026-08-31), counted per 0.7° grid cell and per month and divided by all bird records in that same cell — so the number of birdwatchers does not shape the picture. Colour depth follows that share and fades out gradually, so the map does not follow national borders. Country outlines: Natural Earth (public domain).

How and when to look

Best in forest edges and shaded coffee plantations in Uíge and Cuanza Norte, in mixed flocks of weavers, bulbuls and sunbirds. Listen for the dry rasping chatter and look for the red head on the thicker branches; the crest usually shows only when the bird is excited.

Conservation status

Not threatened and widespread in the Guineo-Congolian forest. In Angola the species is restricted to a small, highly fragmented strip of forest and plantation that is under pressure from logging, agriculture and the decline of shade coffee.

Scientific name

Malimbus malimbicus | (Daudin, 1802)

Daudin described the species in 1802 as Tanagra malimbica; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Malimbus was introduced in 1805 by Vieillot. Malimbus is derived from Malimba (Malimbe), a place on the coast of present-day Cabinda (Angola), where the first specimens were collected. malimbicus means 'of Malimba', after Malimbe on the coast of present-day Cabinda (Angola), where the first specimens were collected. The specimen the first description was based on came from Malimbe, Cabinda (Angola).