It has been recorded from a variety of habitats, including Acacia woodlands in Mozambique, Brachystegia woodland in Zimbabwe, montane and bamboo forest in Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains, coral-rag thicket and groundwater forest in Zanzibar (Taylor 2013) and miombo woodlands in Zambia (White 2013). It has also been reported from mopane woodland and rocky outcrops (Skinner and Smithers 1990). It is omnivorous.

This species ranges from eastern Zimbabwe and central Mozambique northwards through Malawi, eastern Zambia, southeastern DR Congo and Tanzania, to the Lukenya foothills of Kenya. There are outlying records from Mweru Wantipa in the north of Zambia, and from the Zimbabwean side of the middle Zambezi River near Lake Kariba (Taylor 2013). Presence is strongly suspected in Zambia’s Lower Zambezi NP (Bird and Mateke 2013), however it is noted that confirmation is required. It is present on Zanzibar (Pakenham 1984, Stuart and Stuart 1998, Goldman and Winther-Hansen 2003). It has been recorded from 230 m asl (Gilchrist et al. 2009) to 1,850 m asl (De Luca and Mpunga 2005). It has been reported from Yemen (Nader and Al-Safadi 1991), although Simmons (1995) stated that this record requires confirmation.

It is present in several protected areas across the range, including North Luangwa N. P. (Zambia), Selous G. R., Mahale Mountains N. P., Arusha N. P., Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Lake Manyara N. P., as well as Pare, Usambara (Amani N. R.), Ukaguru, Uluguru and Udzungwa Mtns (Tanzania). It has also been recorded on the Tanzanian coast at Pangani and Sadaani N. P. (Foley et al. 2014).