Grey Apalis (Apalis cinerea) [XC289554]
by James Bradley from Bama Forest, Kikuyu, Kenya (song)
Grey Apalis (Apalis cinerea) [XC289530]
by James Bradley from Gwassi Hills, Kenya (song)
Subspecies
Grey Apalis (Apalis cinerea) and Brown-headed Apalis (Apalis alticola) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) have been lumped into Apalis cinerea following Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993).
Forms a superspecies with Brown-headed Apalis (Apalis alticola) and they have often been treated as conspecific, but are sympatric in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania.
Proposed subspecies funebris (south-eastern Nigeria, south-western Cameroon highlands, north-eastern Gabon) described on basis of a worn specimen and treated as a synonym of nominate, despite large gap in distribution. Birds on Mt Cameroon, included in sclateri, are somewhat intermediate between that subspecies and nominate.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
sclateri (Alexander, 1903) - South-western Cameroon (Mt Cameroon) and Bioko I (Fernando Póo).
cinerea (Sharpe, 1891) - South-eastern Nigeria, highlands of south-western Cameroon (except Mt Cameroon), and north-eastern Gabon; eastern DRCongo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, southern Sudan, western Kenya and northern Tanzania.
grandis Boulton, 1931 - South-western Angola.
funebris Bannerman, 1937 - Montane forests of Nigeria and Cameroon.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet