Gorgeous Bushshrike - BirdForum Opus

Alternative name: Four-colored Bushshrike^[1]

Photo by safariranger
Pafuri, Kruger National Park, South Africa, November 2006



Includes Perrin's Bushshrike

Telophorus viridis

Chlorophoneus viridis^[2]

Identification

Length 19 cm; mass 37 g.

Adult male: Upperparts olive green; forehead and eyebrow yellow; lores black, with black stripe extending to broad breast-band forming a black gorget. Throat and upper breast red; belly yellow with red wash near gorget and on undertail coverts.

Adult female: Similar to the male, but the black gorget is narrower and does not extend to the lores.

Distribution

Sub-Saharan Africa:
Western Africa: Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and Zaire
Eastern Africa: Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi
Southern Africa: Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal and ESwatini

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Telophorus viridis has four subspecies:^[1]

• T. v. viridis

• Northern Angola to southern DRC and north-western Zambia

• T. v. nigricauda

• Coastal south-eastern Kenya and eastern Tanzania

• T. v. quartus

• Southern Malawi to Zimbabwe and Mozambique

• T. v. quadricolor

• Eastern Cape to eSwatini and north-eastern South Africa

Habitat

Dense tangled thickets at heights up to 2000 m.

Behaviour

A "skulker", generally remaining in the canopy, even when calling.

Diet

Diet is mostly arthropods.

Vocalisation

A loud whistle; kong-koit or kong-kon-koweet.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2013. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.8., with updates to August 2013. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Dickinson, EC, ed. 2003. The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. 3rd ed., with updates to December 2007 (Corrigenda 7). Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691117010
3. Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2015. IOC World Bird Names (version 5.3). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
4. Hockey, PAR, WRJ Dean, and PG Ryan, eds. 2005. Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa. 7th ed. Cape Town: John Voelcker Bird Book Fund. ISBN 978-0620340533

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Gorgeous Bushshrike. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 11 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Gorgeous_Bushshrike

External Links

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