An erratic visitor, mainly in summer. Uncommon; single birds and small groups occur widely but sparsely on grass- and sedge-fringed margins of dams (recorded in 16% of the Waterberg pentads). A skulking species usually only detected when it takes to the wing. Not known to breed in the Waterberg but in years of high rainfall it breeds in numbers in the reedbeds along the Nyl floodplain and these are perhaps the source of the area’s visitors.