Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Côte dIvoire, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania [United Republic of], Togo, Uganda.
South-western Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia and Guinea Bissau east through northern Guinea, northern Ivory Coast, southern Mali, southern Burkina Faso, northern and eastern Ghana, northern Togo, northern Benin, southern Niger and northern Nigeria eastern in narrow band to south-western Sudan, thence south to extreme north-eastern DRCongo, Uganda (except south-western and east), south-western Ethiopia and extreme western Kenya. Also a few old reports from Sierra Leone and one recent record from Liberia, and isolated records from northern PRCongo.
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Piapiac (Ptilostomus afer) [XC739979]
by Antonio Xeira from Murchison falls National Park, Uganda (call)
Piapiac (Ptilostomus afer) [XC338356]
by Bram Piot from Diemb\u00e9ring, Oussouye, Casamance, Senegal (song)
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Long, graduated tail, sociable habits and piping calls of this peculiar corvid suggest, as with Zavattariornis, an affinity with the starlings (Sturnidae), but DNA-sequencing supports its inclusion in present family, with closest relatives evidently Podoces and Zavattariornis. Very unusual among passerine genera in having ten (instead of twelve) tail feathers.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet