Northern Puffback (Dryoscopus gambensis)

Other Names (World)
Northern Puffback, The Puffback, Common Puffback, Common Puffback-Shrike, Gambian Puffback, Gambian Puffback-Shrike

Family
Malaconotidae (Bush-shrikes)

Size
18 cm

First Described (Guide)
(Lichtenstein, 1823)

Habitat
Dry savanna.

Range (Guide)

Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], C�te dIvoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania [United Republic of], Togo, Uganda.

Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).

Status LC
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

Voice
Xeno-Canto Sound Files (more (37)...)

Northern Puffback (Dryoscopus gambensis) [XC234723]
by Peter Boesman from Echuya Central Forest Reserve, Kabale, Western Region, Uganda (call)

Northern Puffback (Dryoscopus gambensis) [XC300255]
by Peter Boesman from Gibe gorge area, Ethiopia (song)

Subspecies
Considered to form a superspecies with Pringle's Puffback (Dryoscopus pringlii), the two being very alike in plumage and having parapatric ranges (some sympatry in southern Ethiopia). In eastern range, size decreases clinally from northern (Sudan) to southern (Itombwe); subspecies erwini rather poorly differentiated, sometimes subsumed in malzacii.

The following 5 subspecies are recognised:

gambensis (Lichtenstein, 1823) - Extreme southern Mauritania and Senegambia east to western Cameroon and Gabon.
congicus Sharpe, 1901 - South-western PRCongo, south-western DRCongo and north-western Angola (Cabinda).
malzacii (Heuglin, 1870) - Eastern Cameroon, southern Chad, Central African Republic, south-western Sudan, north-eastern DRCongo, Uganda, western Kenya, Rwanda, northern Burundi and north-western Tanzania.
erythreae Neumann, 1899 - Eritrea, Ethiopia and eastern Sudan (Sennar).
erwini Sassi, 1923 - Itombwe, in eastern DRCongo.

References
See References.

Files:

JPG files for Northern Puffback (Dryoscopus gambensis) - 10 files

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BirdLife International

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BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

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