Gorgeous Bushshrike (Telophorus viridis) [XC875606]
by Marc Anderson from Makhado Local Municipality (near Louis Trichardt), Vhembe District Municipality, Limpopo, South Africa (song)
Gorgeous Bushshrike (Telophorus viridis) [XC59750]
by Derek Solomon from Inhaca island, Mozambique (song)
Subspecies
Gorgeous Bush-Shrike (Telophorus viridis) and Four-colored Bush-Shrike (Telophorus quadricolor) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) are retained as separate species contra Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993) who include quadricolor as a subspecies of viridis in the genus Malaconotus.
Molecular-genetic studies suggest that genus is more closely allied to Chlorophoneus and Laniarius than to the clade formed by Malaconotus, Dryoscopus and Tchagra, although has been thought to link arboreal Chlorophoneus and semi-terrestrial Tchagra. Forms a superspecies with Doherty's Bush-Shrike (Telophorus dohertyi) and the two have conventionally been grouped in Chlorophoneus, but studies of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA support their placement in present genus. Green-bellied nominate subspecies in west of range formerly treated as a separate species, distinct from the three yellow-bellied subspecies in east, but all are vocally very similar.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
viridis (Vieillot, 1817) - South-eastern Gabon, south-western PRCongo, western and eastern Angola (including Cabinda), south-western and southern DRCongo and north-western Zambia.
nigricauda (Clarke, S, 1913) - Extreme southern Somalia, south-eastern Kenya and eastern Tanzania.
quartus Clancey, 1960 - Southern Malawi, eastern Zimbabwe and western and southern Mozambique.
quadricolor (Cassin, 1851) - North-eastern South Africa (northern and eastern Limpopo south to north-eastern eastern Cape) and Swaziland. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Four-colored Bush-Shrike (Telophorus quadricolor).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet