The Ethiopian boubou (Laniarius aethiopicus) is a species of bird in the family Malaconotidae. It is found in Eritrea, Ethiopia, northwest Somalia, and northern Kenya. Its natural habitat is moist savanna.

Ethiopian boubou
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Malaconotidae
Genus: Laniarius
Species:
L. aethiopicus
Binomial name
Laniarius aethiopicus
(Gmelin, JF, 1789)
Synonyms

Laniarius ferrugineus aethiopicus (Gmelin, 1788)

Its breast and belly are pinkish. It has a narrow wing stripe, extending across the median and larger wing coverts, and often a bit onto the secondary remiges. Outer tail feathers never have white tips.

Taxonomy edit

The Ethiopian boubou was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the thrushes in the genus Turdus and coined the binomial name Turdus aethiopicus.[2] Gmelin based his description on "Le merle noire et blanc d'Abyssinie" that had been described in 1775 by the French polymath, the Comte de Buffon.[3] The Ethiopian boubou is now one of 22 species placed in the genus Laniarius that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.[4]

The Ethiopian boubou was formerly lumped with the tropical boubou, the black boubou, and the East Coast boubou. The species complex was split based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2008.[4][5]

A quill mite, Neoaulonastus malaconotus, has been identified as an ectoparasite of the species.[6] It belongs to the Syringophilinae, a mite subfamily known to infect several bushshrike species.

References edit

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2016). "Laniarius aethiopicus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T104007160A94129399. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T104007160A94129399.en. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  2. ^ Gmelin, Johann Friedrich (1789). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 2 (13th ed.). Lipsiae [Leipzig]: Georg. Emanuel. Beer. p. 824.
  3. ^ Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de (1775). "Le merle noire et blanc d'Abyssinie". Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (in French). Vol. 3. Paris: De l'Imprimerie Royale. pp. 406–407.
  4. ^ a b Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2023). "Batises, woodshrikes, bushshrikes, vangas". IOC World Bird List Version 13.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
  5. ^ Nguembock, B.; Fjeldså, J.; Couloux, A.; Pasquet, E. (2008). "Phylogeny of Laniarius: Molecular data reveal L. liberatus synonymous with L. erlangeri and 'plumage coloration' as unreliable morphological characters for defining species and species groups". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 48 (2): 396–407. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2008.04.014. PMID 18514549.
  6. ^ Klimovičová, M.; Skoracki, M.; Njoroge, P.; Hromada, M. (April 2016). "Two New Species of the Family Syringophilidae (Prostigmata: Syringophilidae) Parasitising Bushshrikes (Passeriformes: Malaconotidae)". Journal of Parasitology. 102 (2): 187–192. doi:10.1645/15-870. PMID 26571331. S2CID 35632851. Retrieved 23 January 2022.