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Cabanis's Greenbul | Phyllastrephus cabanisi
Cabanis' loofbuulbuul | Bulbul de Cabanis
Cabanis's Greenbul is an olive, noisy bulbul of the understorey of evergreen forest in the north of the region. The species is taxonomically tricky: the birds of Malawi and northern Mozambique are treated by several lists as a separate species, Phyllastrephus placidus.
Voice
Noisy. A dry chuk, a nasal nyeah and a long, grating chatter, chrr-chrr-chrr-chrrrrr, often by the whole group. The song is a short series of rising chattering notes.
Recording: GABRIEL LEITE — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
17–19 cm. The upperparts are olive-brown to olive-green, the crown slightly greyer, the rump and tail warmer rufous-brown. The throat is white to off-white, the breast and flanks olive-grey to olive-yellow, the belly pale yellow to buffy yellow. The bill is fairly long and slender, dark with a paler lower mandible; eye colour varies between populations from brown to pale grey. The legs are greyish pink. The sexes are alike, the male larger; juveniles are more rufous above. Differences from related greenbuls are slight in the field.
Confusion species
Grey-Olive Greenbul Phyllastrephus cerviniventris is greyer on the head and fawn, not yellowish, below, and lives in riverside thicket at lower altitude. Yellow-Streaked Greenbul Phyllastrephus flavostriatus has a grey head, yellow breast streaks and flicks one wing. Fischer's Greenbul Phyllastrephus fischeri replaces the species in the coastal forests of northern Mozambique. In Angola, Pale-Olive Greenbul Phyllastrephus fulviventris differs in its paler olive upperparts and warm buffy underparts and its range in the north-west. In this group voice, habitat and area matter more than colour.
Habitat
The understorey and mid-stratum of evergreen forest: in Angola and north-western Zambia mainly swampy gallery forest (mushitu) and riverine forest, in Malawi and northern Mozambique mid-altitude and montane forest and wooded ravines. It lives in groups of three to eight that search dense foliage for insects, often with mixed foraging flocks.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
In Angola in the north and north-east, including the Lunda provinces. In Zambia in the north-west (Mwinilunga) and in the north and north-east. In Malawi in forest in the north and centre, including the Misuku, Nyika and Viphya, and in the highlands of northern Mozambique; these are the birds sometimes split as placidus. Beyond the region in DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
All year. In mushitu forest in north-western Zambia and in the forests of northern Malawi the grating group chatter is often the first sign; follow the sound and look low in the undergrowth. With records in Malawi and Mozambique, note the altitude and forest type and record the sound, so that the data remain usable if the taxonomy changes.
Conservation status
Not threatened and fairly common in suitable forest. Loss and fragmentation of evergreen forest through farming and logging, and damage to mushitu by fire, are local threats.
Scientific name
Phyllastrephus cabanisi | (Sharpe, 1882)
Sharpe described the species in 1882 as Criniger cabanisi; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Phyllastrephus was introduced in 1832 by Swainson. Phyllastrephus comes from the Greek phullon, 'leaf', and a form of strephō, 'to turn' — 'leaf-turner', for the way these birds search foliage for insects. cabanisi honours the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis (1816–1906), who had first described the species under another, preoccupied name. The specimen the first description was based on came from Angola (not further specified).