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Fülleborn's Boubou | Laniarius fuelleborni
Fülleborns fiskaal | Bubú de Fülleborn
Fülleborn’s Boubou is an all-dark boubou of the montane forests of East Africa which, in the region, occurs only in the far north of Malawi and Zambia. In the gloomy undergrowth of Afromontane forest it is almost invisible; its clear whistles and harsh answers give it away.
Voice
Duets of clear, pure whistles from the male, such as a single hoo or a two-note hoo-hoo, answered immediately by a harsh kzzzt or a dry click from the female. It also gives low, rolling krrr calls and hard rattles in alarm.
Recording: isaac kilusu — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
18–20 cm. The male is entirely deep slate-black, slightly glossy above and a little greyer below, with no white wing stripe. The female is dark slate-grey, with an olive-grey tinge below. The bill is heavy, black and hooked, and the eye is dark. Juveniles are dark grey-brown with fine, faint barring. It keeps low in dense undergrowth and along the forest edge, and is shy.
Confusion species
The male Black Cuckooshrike Campephaga flava is also entirely black but has a finer bill, often a yellow shoulder patch and an orange-yellow gape, and feeds higher in the trees. Square-Tailed Drongo Dicrurus ludwigii has a red eye and a slightly notched tail and perches upright on open branches. Southern Black Flycatcher Melaenornis pammelaina is slimmer, with a finer bill, and hunts from a lookout perch. All other boubous in the region have a white wing stripe and pale underparts.
Habitat
Dense undergrowth of Afromontane forest and forest edge, also wooded ravines, bracken-filled clearings and overgrown plantation edges, roughly above 1,500 m. It forages on or just above the ground among leaf litter and low shrubs.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Within the region only in the northern highlands: the Nyika Plateau on the Malawi–Zambia border, the Misuku Hills and other montane forests in northern Malawi, and the Mafinga Hills in north-eastern Zambia. Beyond the region in the montane forests of southern and eastern Tanzania and the far south-east of DR Congo.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Year-round. The forest patches of the Nyika Plateau, such as Zovochipolo Forest, and the forests of the Misuku Hills are the best places. Walk slowly along the forest edge in the early morning and listen for the whistles; the bird sometimes emerges on a track or in a clearing, but rarely stays in view for long.
Conservation status
Not threatened; locally common in suitable forest. Its range within the region is small and depends on the survival of the montane forests, which are under pressure from clearance and fire outside protected areas. On the Nyika Plateau its habitat is well protected.
Scientific name
Laniarius fuelleborni | (Reichenow, 1900)
Reichenow described the species in 1900 as Dryoscopus fülleborni; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Laniarius was introduced in 1816 by Vieillot. Laniarius comes from the Latin lanius, 'butcher', the same root as for the true shrikes — for the hooked bill and the habit of impaling prey on thorns. fuelleborni honours the German army physician and parasitologist Friedrich Fülleborn (1866–1933), who collected in German East Africa. The specimen the first description was based on came from Usafua, north of Lake Malawi, Tanzania.