Black-backed Puffback (Dryoscopus cubla) [XC621045]
by Tony Archer from City of Matlosana (near Klerksdorp), Southern DC, North West, South Africa (song)
Black-backed Puffback (Dryoscopus cubla) [XC280262]
by Peter Boesman from St Lucia area, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa (song)
Subspecies
Forms a superspecies with Red-eyed Puffback (Dryoscopus senegalensis). Only "pure" individuals of subspecies affinis seem to occur on Zanzibar and adjacent mainland coast. From coastal southern Somalia south to central Tanzanian coast (Dar es Salaam) many are pure affinis, but others, especially inland, have variable amounts of white in scapulars and wing, and exhibit extensive intergradation with nairobiensis and hamatus. Subspecies okavangensis intergrades with hamatus.
Proposed subspecies chapini, described from Newington (eastern Mpumalanga), in north-eastern South Africa, is subsumed in hamatus.
The following 5 subspecies are recognised:
hamatus Hartlaub, 1863 - Northern Angola, south-eastern and eastern DRCongo, northern and western Zambia, south-western Kenya (west of Rift Valley, to Kavirondo Gulf), Tanzania (except north-east), Malawi, Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, and lowland north-eastern South Africa (Limpopo Province south to extreme northern and north-eastern Free State and northern KwaZulu-Natal) and Swaziland.
nairobiensis Rand, 1958 - East of Rift Valley in Kenya (southern from Archer's Post, east to Mt Endau, Kibwezi, and Tiva and Voi rivers) and north-eastern Tanzania (south to Kilosa, east to Usambara Mts).
affinis (Gray, GR, 1837) - Southern Somalia and coastal lowlands of Kenya (extending inland to Bura and Shimba Hills) and Tanzania (south to R Rufiji), including Zanzibar I and Mafia I.
okavangensis Roberts, 1932 - Southern Angola, Zambia (southern from Balovale) and western Zimbabwe south to northern Namibia, northern and eastern Botswana and northern South Africa (R Molopo, in northern North West Province).
cubla (Shaw, 1809) - South-eastern South Africa (southern KwaZulu-Natal southern along coast to eastern western Cape).