Green-backed Camaroptera

Alternative name: Bleating Warbler

Green-backed Camaroptera
Photo by louisdup
Port Elizabeth, South Africa, October 2005

Camaroptera brachyura

Includes Hartert's Camaroptera, 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

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 Swaziland

  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

• Hartert's Camaroptera:

  C. b. harterti in the escarpment forests of west-central Angola

• 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

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Sinclair, I and P Ryan. 2003. Birds of Africa South of the Sahara. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691118154
3. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved November 2014)

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Green-backed Camaroptera. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 15 January 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Green-backed_Camaroptera

External Links

Search for photos of Green-backed Camaroptera in the gallery