Widespread throughout the well-wooded regions of sub-Saharan Africa, this bird is locally common and in addition to breeding in indigenous woodlands and riparian belts, it readily nests in alien pine plantations in former grassland areas. Although it has expanded its range in southern Africa, this has not extended to Namibia, where it occurs sporadically (with a frequency of 2% to 8%) only in the north-east in the indigenous woodlands around the Okavango River, the Linyanti Swamps and the eastern loodplain of the Zambezi River.