Little Greenbul (Eurillas virens) [XC739687]
by \u00c9tienne Leroy from Kibale National Park, Western Region, Uganda (call)
Little Greenbul (Eurillas virens) [XC690764]
by Brendan Sloan from Tunjina, Kombo East, West Coast Region, Gambia (song)
Subspecies
Little Greenbul (Eurillas virens) and Hall's Greenbul (Andropadus hallae) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) have been lumped into Andropadus virens following Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993).
May be closest to Yellow-whiskered Greenbul (Eurillas latirostris), to which it bears some resemblance in several aspects of behaviour. Described taxon Hall's Greenbul (Andropadus hallae), known only from the single type specimen (from eastern DRCongo), now considered a melanistic form of present species. Subspecies amadoni originally named as poensis, but that name preoccupied by Stelgidillas poensis, a synonym of Slender-billed Greenbul (Stelgidillas gracilirostris).
Proposed subspecies holochlorus (from R Sezibwa, in Uganda) is on average yellower below and slightly larger than nominate, but much individual variation and intergradation, and considered better merged with latter. Similarly, marwitzi (Mt Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania) is poorly differentiated, merged with zombensis.
The following 5 subspecies are recognised:
erythroptera (Hartlaub, 1858) - Gambia east to eastern Nigeria.
amadoni (Dickerman, 1997) - Bioko I.
virens (Cassin, 1858) - Western Cameroon east to extreme southern Sudan and western Kenya, south to northern Angola and southern DRCongo.
zombensis (Shelley, 1894) - South-eastern DRCongo, northern Zambia, northern and south-eastern Malawi, south-eastern Kenya, Tanzania (Eastern Arc mountains, also Mafia I) and central-northern Mozambique.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet