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Black-Headed Mountain Greenbul | Arizelocichla nigriceps
Oostelijke grijskeelbuulbuul | Bulbul del Kilimanjaro
The Black-Headed Mountain Greenbul is a greenbul of the montane forests of East Africa, with a black cap above a grey throat. It belongs to a group of closely related mountain greenbuls once treated as a single species; the southern form in Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique is now the Black-Browed Mountain Greenbul, so this species itself does not reliably reach the region.
Voice
Noisy. A dry, repeated chuk and a short bubbling song of rolling and scratchy notes, chook-chirrirrip-chook, often by several birds at once at a fruiting tree.
Recording: isaac kilusu — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
18–19 cm. Crown, forehead and lores are black to sooty black and form a clear cap; cheeks and throat are grey. The upperparts are bright olive-green, the underparts olive-yellow, yellowest on the belly and undertail-coverts. Wings and tail olive-green. The bill is black, the eyes dark, the legs grey-brown. The sexes are alike; juveniles have a duller, browner cap.
Confusion species
Black-Browed Mountain Greenbul Arizelocichla fusciceps has a browner crown with a dark brow rather than a fully black cap, and is the mountain greenbul actually found in the region; older reports from Malawi and Zambia under this name belong to that species. Shelley's Greenbul Arizelocichla masukuensis is smaller and has a grey, not black, head with a narrow white eye-ring.
Habitat
Montane forest and forest edge, also secondary forest, edge scrub and gardens with fruit trees near forest, usually above 1500 m. It forages in the mid-stratum and canopy for fruit and insects, often in small groups.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Not reliably recorded in the region; reports from northern Malawi and north-eastern Zambia are now attributed to Black-Browed Mountain Greenbul. The range lies in the mountains of Kenya and Tanzania, including Kilimanjaro, Meru and the Eastern Arc, and in parts of the Albertine Rift.
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Anyone seeing a grey-throated mountain greenbul with a dark head in Malawi or Zambia is almost certainly looking at a Black-Browed Mountain Greenbul. If in doubt, check the crown: an all-black cap points to this species, a brownish crown with a dark brow to Black-browed. A photograph of the head is essential for any report.
Conservation status
Not threatened; locally common in the montane forests of East Africa. Loss of montane forest to logging and farming is the main threat, but the species also tolerates secondary forest and forest edges.
Scientific name
Arizelocichla nigriceps | (Shelley, 1889)
Shelley described the species in 1889 as Xenocichla nigriceps; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Arizelocichla was introduced in 1905 by Oberholser. Arizelocichla comes from the Greek arizēlos, 'conspicuous, distinct', and kikhlē, 'thrush'. nigriceps comes from the Latin niger, 'black', and -ceps, '-headed' — for the dark grey head. The specimen the first description was based on came from Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.