This elusive species is endemic to southern Africa and occurs, as its name implies, solely within karooid habitat. It occurs in pairs or small locks and forages close to the ground or in low bushes on gravel plains. It has a very limited distribution in Namibia of 18,600 km2, occurring from the Orange River through the Tsau//Khaeb (Sperrgebiet) National Park. Then, following a large gap in distribution in the Namib sand sea, it occurs again in an apparently isolated population inland of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund.