Green-backed Eremomela (Eremomela canescens) [XC538839]
by Hans Matheve from western slopes of the Tugen Hills, Baringo County, Kenya (call)
Green-backed Eremomela (Eremomela canescens) [XC209994]
by id from Simbo Resort, Lake Langano, Ethiopia (call, song)
Subspecies
Senegal Eremomela (Eremomela pusilla) and Green-backed Eremomela (Eremomela canescens) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) have been lumped into Eremomela pusilla following Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993).
Forms a superspecies with Senegal Eremomela (Eremomela pusilla), Greencap Eremomela (Eremomela scotops) and Karoo Eremomela (Eremomela gregalis). Has been treated as conspecific with Senegal Eremomela (Eremomela pusilla), with which it hybridizes along Cameroon-Central African Republic border.
Proposed subspecies elgonensis (from western Kenya and adjacent Uganda) evidently an intergrade between elegans and nominate, and synonymized with latter.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
canescens Antinori, 1864 - Southern Chad, eastern Cameroon, Central African Republic, southern Sudan, extreme northern and north-eastern DRCongo, northern and eastern Uganda and western Kenya.
elegans Heuglin, 1864 - Western and central Sudan (Darfur and Kordofan east to Sennar).
abyssinica Bannerman, 1911 - Eastern Sudan (Kassala to R Sobat), northern Eritrea, western Ethiopia (south to R Omo).
elgonensis van Someren, 1920 - Western Kenya (Mt. Elgon to southern Nandi Hills).