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Swamp Palm Bulbul | Thescelocichla leucopleura
Moerasbuulbuul | Bulbul de las Rafias
The Swamp Palm Bulbul is a large, noisy bulbul of raffia palm swamp forest in West and Central Africa. In the region it reaches only the far north of Angola. Groups make a great deal of noise with their communal, raucous chattering, and the white tail corners stand out in flight.
Voice
Very noisy. Groups produce a raucous, blaring chorus of scratchy and nasal notes, chrrr-chrrr-chak-chak, often building to an excited chattering with all birds calling at once. Also a single chak as a contact call.
Recording: Jaap van der Waarde — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
21–23 cm. A bulky, fairly long-tailed bulbul. The upperparts are dark olive-brown, the crown a shade darker. The throat is white, the breast and belly pale yellowish to creamy, with greyish-olive washed flanks bearing pale streaks. The tail is dark olive-brown with broad white tips to the outer feathers, best seen when the tail is spread and in flight. The bill is black and fairly stout, the legs grey. The sexes are alike; juveniles are duller, with less white in the tail.
Confusion species
Honeyguide Greenbul Baeopogon indicator also shows white in the tail, but along the length of the outer feathers rather than as broad tips; it is greener, has a grey throat and usually sits high in the canopy of drier forest. Simple Greenbul Chlorocichla simplex also has a white throat but a plain tail without white and a white eye-ring. Yellow-Bellied Greenbul Chlorocichla flaviventris is smaller, with bright yellow underparts and no white in the tail.
Habitat
Swamp forest with raffia palms and Pandanus, palm swamps along rivers, wooded banks and wet forest edges, also oil-palm plantations near water, in the lowlands. It lives in groups of five to fifteen birds that move through the palm crowns and feed mainly on fruit, supplemented by insects.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Within the region only in the far north of Angola: Cabinda and the palm swamps of the north-western provinces along the lower Congo. Beyond the region from Senegal and Guinea east through the West African coastal forests to Cameroon, Gabon, Congo and western DR Congo.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
All year. In Cabinda and the far north of Angola look for stretches of raffia swamp; a group nearly always gives itself away by its raucous chorus. Wait at a palm stand until the birds fly to the next tree: the white tail corners then confirm the identification.
Conservation status
Not threatened; widespread and often common in suitable swamp forest. The Angolan population is small and depends on palm swamps that are locally cleared or converted to farmland.
Scientific name
Thescelocichla leucopleura | (Cassin, 1855)
Cassin described the species in 1855 as Phyllostrophus leucopleurus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Thescelocichla was introduced in 1905 by Oberholser. Thescelocichla comes from the Greek theskelos, 'marvellous, wondrous', and kikhlē, 'thrush' — a 'wonder thrush'. leucopleura comes from the Greek leukos, 'white', and pleura, 'side, flank' — for the pale flanks. The specimen the first description was based on came from Mondah River, Gabon.