A large flycatcher with upright posture, plain brown upperparts with warm edges to flight feathers, and diagnostic and strongly contrasting bold white underparts. Juveniles are heavily streaked brown and white. Pairs and small groups inhabit arid scrub, favoring thorn trees, where they sit conspicuously on low perches, sallying or pouncing onto the ground to subdue prey. All other brown flycatchers in the same range have brown or buffy underparts.
The Marico flycatcher or Mariqua flycatcher (Bradornis mariquensis) is a passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae that is found in areas of southern Africa.
The Marico flycatcher was previously placed in the genus Bradornis but was moved to Melaenornis based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2010.
It is found in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Its natural habitat is dry savanna.
This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence under 20,000 km² combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population size has not been quantified, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (under 10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be over 10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). The population trend appears to be stable, and hence the species does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (over 30% decline over ten years or three generations). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
