Bushshrike

Bushshrikes
A yellow-crowned gonolek (Laniarius barbarus) in Gambia
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Superfamily: Malaconotoidea
Family: Malaconotidae
Swainson, 1824
Genera

Nilaus
Dryoscopus
Tchagra
Laniarius
Rhodophoneus
Chlorophoneus
Telophorus
Malaconotus

The bushshrikes are smallish passerine birds. They were formerly classed with the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, but are now considered sufficiently distinctive to be separated from that group as the family Malaconotidae, a name that alludes to their fluffy back and rump feathers.[1]

Like their shrike-like relatives, the helmetshrikes, the bushshrikes have arisen in Africa in relatively recent times.[2] The family is endemic to sub-Saharan Africa but completely absent from Madagascar,[2] where the vangas are their closest relatives.[3] They are found in scrub or open woodland, and less often in marshes, Afromontane or tropical forest. They are similar in habits to shrikes, hunting insects and other small prey from a perch on a bush. Although similar in build to the shrikes, these tend to be either colourful species or largely black; some species are quite secretive.

Some bushshrikes have flamboyant displays. The male puffbacks puff out the loose feathers on their rump and lower back, to look almost ball-like.

These are mainly insectivorous forest or scrub birds. Up to four eggs are laid in a cup nest in a tree.

  1. ^ Hockey, P. A. R.; Dean, W. R. J.; Ryan, P. G. (2005). Roberts Birds of Southern Africa (7th ed.). Cape Town: Trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund. pp. 47–48. ISBN 0-620-34053-3.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference mac1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Fuchs, Jérôme; Bowie, Rauri C.K.; Fjeldså, Jon; Pasquet, Eric (November 2004). "Phylogenetic relationships of the African bush-shrikes and helmet-shrikes (Passeriformes: Malaconotidae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 33 (2): 428–439. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2004.06.014. PMID 15336676. Retrieved 24 January 2022.