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Little Greenbul | Eurillas virens
Groene buulbuul | Bulbul Verde
Little Greenbul is a small, extremely nondescript olive-green greenbul of dense thicket and forest understorey. It seldom shows itself well, but its song, a hurried, scratchy series that swells and then breaks off abruptly, is one of the most frequently heard sounds in the forests of Malawi and northern Zambia.
Voice
The song is distinctive: a hurried, scratchy series that begins stutteringly, swells into a jumbled chatter and ends abruptly, chuk-chuk-chuk-cherri-cherri-chourrr. It is sung throughout the day, even in the heat. The call is a nasal nyeh.
Recording: Jaap van der Waarde — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
15–17 cm. A small, compact greenbul without striking features. The upperparts are plain olive-green, wings and tail slightly browner. The underparts are greyish olive, more yellowish on the belly and undertail-coverts; the throat is slightly paler grey. A faint pale eye-ring. The eye is dark, the bill fairly short and dark with a paler lower mandible, the legs orange-brown to greyish brown. The sexes are alike; juveniles are slightly browner.
Confusion species
Sombre Greenbul Andropadus importunus is larger and longer-tailed, has a pale eye and sits higher and more openly in the foliage. Yellow-Whiskered Greenbul Eurillas latirostris in Angola is darker, with yellow moustachial tufts. Plain Greenbul Eurillas curvirostris in northern Angola is browner and greyer below, with a slightly longer bill, and is best told by voice. Stripe-Cheeked Greenbul Arizelocichla milanjensis is larger, with a grey head and fine white streaks on the cheeks, and lives in montane forest.
Habitat
Dense thicket and understorey in riverine forest, lowland and mid-altitude forest, overgrown forest edge, abandoned cultivation with regrowth and evergreen forest patches (mushitu); up to about 1,800 m. It lives singly or in pairs in the lowest stratum and eats mainly fruit, supplemented by insects; it sometimes joins mixed foraging flocks.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
In Zambia widespread in the north and north-west (North-Western Province, Copperbelt, Central, Northern Province, Muchinga and Luapula), scarce in the east. In Malawi widespread, especially in the south (Thyolo, Mulanje, Zomba) and the north. In Mozambique in the north and centre (Niassa, Zambézia, Nampula). In Zimbabwe rare in the extreme east, with a few records in lowland forest. In Angola in the north and on the forested escarpment. Beyond the region over much of West, Central and East Africa.
- 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. Learn the song: it is heard far more often than the bird is seen. In Malawi and northern Zambia it can be heard in almost every dense patch of forest; wait quietly at the edge of the thicket, as the bird often sings from a half-hidden branch at eye level.
Conservation status
Not threatened; common over most of its range and tolerant of disturbed forest. In Zimbabwe rare and dependent on the few remaining patches of lowland forest.
Scientific name
Eurillas virens | (Cassin, 1857)
Cassin described the species in 1857 as Andropadus virens; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Eurillas was introduced in 1899 by Oberholser. Eurillas comes from the Greek eurus, 'broad', and illas, 'thrush' — probably for the rather broad bill of some species. virens is Latin for 'green' — for the olive-green plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cape Lopez (Gabon) and Río Muni (Equatorial Guinea).