Black-backed Puffback Dryoscopus cubla Scientific name definitions

16–18 cm; male 19–36 g and female 21–30·5 g (nominate), male on average 6 g less and female 4 g less (nairo­biensis), male on average 3 g and female 4·5 g heavier than nominate (affinis). Male nominate race has forehead to mantle, lores, narrow line under eye, ear-coverts and side of neck glossy bluish-black; back and rump white, feathers dense and quite long (capable of being fluffed up into hemispherical shape), uppertail-coverts and tail glossy black; flight-feathers black, edged white, narrowest on primaries, tertials broadly edged white, greater primary coverts black, narrowly edged and tipped white, all secondary coverts black, broadly edged and tipped white; throat and entire underparts creamy greyish-white; underwing-coverts and axillaries white, underside of flight-feathers shiny dark grey; iris bright red to orange-red to orange-yellow (colour appears to vary between habitats, e.g.orange-red in montane forest and red in woodland populations); bill black; legs grey. Female is like male, but less intensely black, with white areas creamy (rather than snowy), rump greyish and feathers shorter than male's; eyes bright orange or yellow-orange, upper mandible black, lower mandible blue-grey or pale grey for variable portion from base, legs blue-grey. Juvenile is like female, but feathers of upperparts blackish-grey with buff tips, rump grey-brown, chin to undertail-coverts initially fluffy and dull white, turning buff soon after young leaves nest; immature like adult female above, has throat, breast and usually belly orange-buff, finely vermiculated, eyes brown at first, becoming yellowish-orange, bill blackish-grey, paler below. Race <em>okavangensis</em> male is like nominate but white edges of wing feathers broader, underparts whiter, eyes red, female like nominate but feathers of forehead and mantle edged greyish, rump pure grey (rather than creamy) and lores pale buffy (not blackish); hamatus male resembles previous but scapulars broadly edged white (large white shoulder patch) and underparts almost pure white, female like nominate but lores whitish; nairobiensis male has wings blacker than last (white edges of all feathers narrow) and white scapular patch less conspicuous, female with lores dusky (not whitish); affinis male is distinctive, has scapulars and wings all black, female almost or entirely without white in scapulars and wings and with lores dusky.

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Eats beetles (Coleoptera), large numbers of caterpillars, ants (Formicidae), termites (Isoptera), also Salvadora fruits and Acacia buds. Food items given to nestlings include butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera), noctuid and saturnid moth caterpillars, long-horned grasshoppers and crickets (Orthoptera), dragonflies (Odonata), beetles, larvae, worms and small lizards; once a stick-insect (Phasmida) 115 mm long and from which legs had been removed. Forages mostly in upper canopy of trees, moving swiftly and silently in horizontal posture, gleaning from foliage and wood; explores galls and pods at end of branch while momentarily hanging upside-down; sometimes comes lower, and descends to the ground in pursuit of falling prey. Occasionally hawks for flying insects. Forages singly and in pairs. Commonly joins mixed-species foraging flocks, e.g. in Zambia found in 61% of bird parties in one area and 36% in another; in Serengeti National Park (Tanzania), often in parties including <em>Laniarius erythrogaster</em> and Malaconotus blanchoti.

Fledglings in Oct in Somalia; in Kenya, season Jan–May, Jul, Sept–Oct and Dec (mainly Apr) inland, Sept and Dec near coast; Jan–Mar in N Tanzania and Jul–Dec on Zanzibar; birds with active gonads in Oct in Angola; breeds Jul–Dec and Mar (mainly Sept, then Oct–Nov) in Zambia; in all months except May (peak Sept–Nov) in Zimbabwe, Oct and Mar in Mozambique, and Feb and Oct–Nov in Botswana; in South Africa, mainly Sept–Jan (peak Nov–Jan) in Limpopo and Oct–Dec in KwaZulu-Natal; single brood per season. Monogamous; one pair remained together for four seasons. Territorial all year; male advertises and defends territory by calling repeatedly (up to 60 times) while perched in exposed position in upright posture on top of tree, with crest and throat feathers slightly raised, tail half-fanned; male signals territorial threat by counter-singing rapidly with whistles and tearing sounds, female joining in with scolding calls; in high-intensity interactions calling speeds up and rises in pitch, then male clicks bill stridently, often during descending, bouncy flight with wings whirring, head held up, tail fanned, and back and rump feathers fluffed out into dense snow-white hemisphere about size of golfball or small powder puff; on alighting, male crouches, with head and foreparts down, and sways slowly from side to side; female clicks bill and occasionally fluffs rump feathers. Male courtship display seems to be just the same as territorial display: short flights with bill-clicking, whirring wings, fanned tail and puffed-out rump; male chases female, pair flying with loud wing-fripping, bouncing swiftly through branches, then male approaches mate in head-down posture, swaying body, with tail fanned, and white rump puff so erect that it almost envelops slightly drooping wings, female bends down and partly opens wings, male mounts her. Nest built by female alone (see Family Text ), male sometimes brings material, work takes about ten days; a small, neat, deep cup made of dry grass, roots and thin strips of bark, bound with spider web and some plant down, sometimes decorated on outside with pieces of lichen, dry leaves and bark, and lined with fine wiry dry grass; well hidden in upright fork 2–15 m above ground in tree; territory size c. 4 ha in dense lowland woods; on Nyika Plateau (Malawi) at 2000 m pairs occupy all forest patches of 7·5 ha or more and at Zovotchipolo (2200 m) two forests of 8·5 ha and 12 ha each held one pair. Clutch 2–4 eggs, in Zambia generally 3–4; incubation mainly by female, fed on nest by male, male relieves her for short periods (both sexes initiate nest-relief, by calling), period 13 days; chicks brooded by female, she feeds them with food delivered to her by male, later fed by both parents, both also remove faecal sacs, nestling period c. 18 days; young out of nest continue to beg from and are fed by parents for at least three weeks, and juveniles appear to be tolerated in parental territory until next nesting season; up to 15 individuals, all or most juveniles, sometimes congregate noisily in trees, displaying rump feathers, calling, wing-fripping and chasing. Nests occasionally parasitized by Klaas's Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx klaas), and possibly by African Emerald Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx cupreus) and Black Cuckoo (Cuculus clamosus). Nestlings sometimes killed by ants. Individual ringed as adult survived for further 10 years 8 months.

Not globally threatened. Generally common. In Somalia, fairly common in lower Jubba and lower Shabeelle valleys and in extreme S; frequent to common in Kenya, where widespread from sea-level up to 2200 m, almost entirely S of equator. In Tanzania, seemingly local in W half, including Minziro Forest (in NW), Zinza area (S of L Victoria), mesic woodlands near L Tanganyika, and probably much of Kigoma and Tabora provinces; widespread in E half, including on Zanzibar and Mafia I. Widespread in SE DRCongo S from S Kivu and E from Kasai, and common and widespread throughout Zambia, Zimbabwe , Malawi and Mozambique. Common in much of Angola, but absent from NW & SW; frequent to common in N Namibia, N & E Botswana, most of NE & E South Africa and throughout Swaziland.