Sombre Greenbul
Encyclopedia
The Sombre Greenbul, Andropadus importunus, is a member of the bulbul
family of passerine
bird
s. It is a resident breeder in coastal bush, evergreen forest and dry shrub land in eastern Africa
from Ethiopia
to the Cape in South Africa
.
The subspecies A. i. hypoxanthus is much yellower below than the nominate subspecies.
s, fruit and small snail
s.
The Sombre Greenbul is a vocal species, and the most typical call is a monotonous, ringing phrase starting with a penetrating single whistle weeeewee, followed by a jumbled chortle and ending off with a rather plaintive, drawn out whistle willy.
Bulbul
Bulbuls are a family, Pycnonotidae, of medium-sized passerine songbirds. Many forest species are known as greenbuls. The family is distributed across most of Africa and into the Middle East, tropical Asia to Indonesia, and north as far as Japan. A few insular species occur on the tropical islands...
family of passerine
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s. It is a resident breeder in coastal bush, evergreen forest and dry shrub land in eastern Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
from Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
to the Cape in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
Identification
The Sombre Greenbul is 15–18 cm long, with mainly dull greyish olive-green plumage, paler on the underparts than above. It has a white iris. The sexes are similar in plumage, but juveniles are even duller than the adult and have dark eyes.The subspecies A. i. hypoxanthus is much yellower below than the nominate subspecies.
Behaviour
The Sombre Greenbul is a common bird, which tends to stay hidden in foliage and is more often heard than seen. It is usually found in pairs or small groups foraging for insectInsect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s, fruit and small snail
Snail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...
s.
The Sombre Greenbul is a vocal species, and the most typical call is a monotonous, ringing phrase starting with a penetrating single whistle weeeewee, followed by a jumbled chortle and ending off with a rather plaintive, drawn out whistle willy.