The Brown-headed Apalis (Apalis alticola) is a small passerine

Passerine

A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...

 bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

 belonging to the genus Apalis

Apalis

The apalises are small passerine birds belonging to the genus Apalis. They are found in forest, woodlands and scrub across most parts of sub-Saharan Africa. They are slender birds with long tails and have a slender bill for catching insects. They are typically brown, grey or green above and several...

in the family Cisticolidae

Cisticolidae

The Cisticolidae family of small passerine birds is a group of about 110 warblers found mainly in warmer southern regions of the Old World. They are often included within the Old World warbler family Sylviidae....

. It is sometimes included within the Grey Apalis

Grey Apalis

The Grey Apalis is a species of bird in the Cisticolidae family.It is found in Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia...

 (A. cinerea) but is now commonly considered to be a separate species. It has two subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

: A. a. alticola and A. a. dowsetti

It is 12-13 cm long with a long tail and fairly long, slender bill

Beak

The beak, bill or rostrum is an external anatomical structure of birds which is used for eating and for grooming, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food, courtship and feeding young...

. The legs and feet are pinkish and the eye is pale orange. The upperparts are grey-brown, becoming chocolate-brown on the crown and cheeks. The underparts are whitish. The adult male and female are alike; juvenile

Juvenile (organism)

A juvenile is an individual organism that has not yet reached its adult form, sexual maturity or size. Juveniles sometimes look very different from the adult form, particularly in terms of their colour...

 birds are more olive above and slightly yellowish below. In A. a. alticola, the outer tail-feathers have white tips and outer webs and the next three pairs of tail-feathers have small white tips. A. a. dowsetti has entirely white outer tail-feathers.

The Grey Apalis is similar but has a grey-brown head and dark eye. The outer tail-feathers are white like those of A. a. dowsetti but it does not overlap in range with that subspecies.

The song

Bird song

Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs are distinguished by function from calls.-Definition:The distinction between songs and calls is based upon...

 of the Brown-headed Apalis is a series of loud, high-pitched "chip" notes.

It has a patchy distribution in central and east Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. It inhabits forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

 and secondary growth

Secondary forest

A secondary forest is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a major disturbance such as fire, insect infestation, timber harvest or windthrow, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident...

 at mid to high altitudes. It is often seen in pairs or small groups and frequently joins other bird species in mixed-species feeding flock

Mixed-species feeding flock

A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species, that join each other and move together while foraging...

s. A. a. alticola occurs in parts of Angola

Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...

, Zambia

Zambia

Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....

, Malawi

Malawi

The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...

, south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania

Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

 and the Nguruman Escarpment

Nguruman Escarpment

Nguruman Escarpment is an escarpment in southern Kenya. The escarpment is around 50 kilometres long and elongated in N-W direction. Its northern edge approximately 120 km southwest of Nairobi, while the southern edge is near the Tanzanian border, at the northwestern corner of Lake Natron...

 in southern Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

. In locations where its range overlaps with the Grey Apalis, it is restricted to the forest edge. A. a. dowsetti is found only on the Marungu plateau in the Democratic Republic of Congo.