Alternative name: Bleating Warbler
- Camaroptera brachyura
Includes Grey-backed Camaroptera
Identification
Length 10-11 cm
A small, active, noisy warbler with olive-green wings and olive-green or grey mantle, back and tail. The head is grey and the under parts are white.
Distribution
C. b. brevicaudata, Grey-backed Camaroptera
Photo © by Westmidstraveller
Masai Mara, Kenya, October 2009
Photo © by Westmidstraveller
Masai Mara, Kenya, October 2009
Most of sub-Saharan Africa.
Taxonomy
Subspecies
17 subspecies recognized in three groups (sometimes accepted as full species)[1]
- Green-backed Camaroptera:
- C. b. brachyura in coastal eastern and southern South Africa
- C. b. constans in southeast Zimbabwe, southern Mozambique, South Africa and eSwatini
- C. b. bororensis in southwest Tanzania, northern Mozambique and southern Malawi
- C. b. fugglescouchmani in northeast Zambia, northern Malawi and eastern Tanzania
- C. b. pileata in southeast Kenya and coastal Tanzania, also on Zanzibar and Mafia Island
- Grey-backed Camaroptera:
- C. b. brevicaudata from Senegal east to Sudan and northwest Ethiopia
- C. b. tincta from Liberia east to western Kenya and south to northwest Angola
- C. b. abessinica in South Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, northern Somalia, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, northern Uganda, and northern Kenya
- C. b. insulata in south-central Ethiopia
- C. b. aschani in eastern DRC, southwest Uganda and the Kenyan Highlands
- C. b. erlangeri in southern Somalia, eastern Kenya and northeastern Tanzania
- C. b. griseigula in southeast Uganda, western Kenya and northern Tanzania
- C. b. intercalata in Angola, southern DRC, northern Zambia and western Tanzania
- C. b. sharpei in southern Angola, northern Namibia, Botswana, southern Zambia, western Malawi and northern South Africa
- C. b. transitiva in Zimbabwe, southeast Botswana and northeast South Africa
- C. b. beirensis in Mozambique, adjacent Zimbabwe and South Africa (northeast KwaZulu-Natal)
Habitat
Dense thicket and forest understorey.
Behaviour
Diet
Their diet consists almost entirely of insects, including spiders, ants, beetles, flies and also caterpillars.
Vocalisation
Calls include a loud, snapping bidup-bidup-bidup and a nasal, "bleating" neeehh.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Sinclair, I and P Ryan. 2003. Birds of Africa South of the Sahara. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691118154
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved November 2014)
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Green-backed Camaroptera. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 28 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Green-backed_Camaroptera
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
