Southern Boubou

About the Southern Boubou

The southern boubou (Laniarius ferrugineus) ('ferrugineus' - rust-coloured) is a species of bushshrike. Though these passerine birds and their relations were once included with true shrikes in the Laniidae, they are not closely related to that family.

This species is found in southeastern Africa, mainly in southeastern Zimbabwe, eastern Botswana, Mozambique and southern and eastern South Africa. It frequents dense thickets in forests, mangroves, scrub and gardens. In drier regions, it is found in riverside woodland.

The southern boubou was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the shrikes in the genus Lanius and coined the binomial name Lanius ferrugineus. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "rusty-coloured". Gmelin based his description on the "ferruginous bellied shrike" that had been described in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham had examined a specimen from South Africa that formed part of the collection of a Mrs Blomefield. The southern boubou is now one of 22 species placed... Wikipedia →