Many-colored Bushshrike (Chlorophoneus multicolor) [XC519842]
by id from For\u00eat class\u00e9e du Mont Tonkoui, Man, Montagnes District, Ivory Coast (call)
Many-colored Bushshrike (Chlorophoneus multicolor) [XC739523]
by Hans Matheve from Buhoma, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda (song)
Subspecies
Many-colored Bush-shrike (Chlorophoneus multicolor) and Black-fronted Bush-Shrike (Chlorophoneus nigrifrons) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) are retained as separate species within Telophoruscontra (Dowsett and Forbes-Watson 1993) who include nigrifrons as a subspecies of multicolor in the genus Malaconotus.
Genus sometimes subsumed in Malaconotus or in Telophorus. Forms a superspecies with Black-fronted Bush-Shrike (Chlorophoneus nigrifrons) and possibly conspecific with it. Occurs in five basic colour morphs with additional six variants, present in varying proportions throughout range and interbreeding freely. Although geographical variation partly obscured by polymorphism, several characters enable differentiation of subspecies.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
multicolor (Gray, GR, 1845) - South-western Mali, Sierra Leone, south-eastern Guinea and Liberia east, discontinuously, to western Cameroon.
batesi Sharpe, 1908 - Patchily southern Cameroon, north-eastern Gabon, north-western and south-western PRCongo, north-western Angola, Central African Republic, north-eastern DRCongo (Ituri) and western Uganda (Kibale).
graueri (Hartert, 1908) - Montane forests of eastern DRCongo (Kivu south to Itombwe), south-western Uganda and western Rwanda (Nyungwe).