This stunningly coloured intra-African migrant is widespread throughout equatorial forests from central to West Africa. It occurs sparsely in southern Africa in the Caprivi Strip, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, eastern South Africa and South Africa's coastal regions from KwaZulu-Natal to the southern Cape. It is an insect-catching species of evergreen forests, often seen close to the rivers in the north-east of Namibia, including the Kwando, Okavango and Linyanti rivers. An individual recorded west of Ruacana probably originated from an Angolan population. Curiously it does not occur regularly in the Okavango Swamps.