This is indeed a 'rare' species: it occurs extremely sparingly, it is hard to find and it is difficult to photograph. I had an incredible luck - and a very skilled guide, who told me to drop everything else and accompany him when he had discovered a singing male of Black-collared apalis. Something moved in the shrubbery, but everyone who has tried to photograph or even get sight of e.g. a nightingale in Europe, knows what I mean. It was absolutely impossible. But using a playback of another Black-collared apalis, it suddenly appeared on a branch outside the foliage. It sang frantically for around half a minute before it withdrew into the shrubbery again. Meanwhile, iIn that half minute, I got a series of pictures. The sexes look alike, but because of the song, which is usually described as "zeeu-zeeu-zeeu" in alternating, paired tones, we can conclude that this is a dominant male. The Black-collared apalis was previously placed in the genus Apalis, whose species it resembles in appearance as well as in size, but is now brought to the genus Oreolais, along with the Rwenzori or Collared apalis (Oreolais ruwenzorii), since DNA studies have shown that these two species are only remotely related to the species in Apalis. The Black-collared apalis appears in pairs and small groups in shrubbery and undergrowth between 1550 and 2400 m in a few limited locations in central Africa. The largest cohesive habitat (which is not particularly large) is actually found here in Kenya. It is 11-13 cm long and subsists on insects and other invertebrates. This is one of two subspecies, the nominal race (Oreolais pulcher pulcher).