This species occurs in Sub-Saharan Africa except in dense forests (especially near the Congo River), the Horn of Africa, the Namib Desert and South Africa.
There are two subspecies: H. c. chelicuti in most of the range, and H. c. eremogiton (Hartert, 1921)[REF] in the northern desert parts of the range from central Mali to the White Nile region of eastern Sudan [REF].