This striking black and white chat is found in the broadleafed woodlands of the southern African tropics where it is conined to north-east Namibia, northern Botswana, northern South Africa and north-west Zimbabwe. In Namibia, it occurs in well-developed woodland in the north-east Ohangwena, and northern Kavango regions, and in Mopane woodland throughout the Zambezi region. Density estimates of 833 birds per 10 km2 have been recorded along rivers in Botswana, but population sizes are much lower in the Salambala woodlands bordering the Chobe River, where only two birds were recorded in 7 km2 of blocks in Mopane-dominated woodland. In a survey of Mopane woodland some 40 km southwest of Katima Mulilo, a population density of about 22 birds per 10 km2 was estimated.