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Leaf-love Phyllastrephus scandens Scientific name definitions

Lincoln Fishpool and Joseph A. Tobias
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated January 1, 2005

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Originally Appeared in

HBW Alive

Field Identification

c. 22 cm; male 61–67 g (nominate), male 43–53 g, female 33–51 g (orientalis). Large, handsome distinctively coloured bulbul, feathers of lower back and rump long and loose. Nominate race has pale grey-olive lores, non-contrasting and rather inconspicuous creamy-white eyering, light brownish-grey ear-coverts with indistinct paler shaft streaking; top of head and neck olive-grey, mantle, back, scapulars and lesser wing-coverts brownish olive-green, rump paler and more chestnut, uppertail-coverts brighter chestnut; wings brown, edged rufous on flight-feathers; tail pale rufous-chestnut; throat white, breast and flanks dirty buff, lower flanks washed cinnamon, lower breast and belly creamy buff; iris reddish-brown, greyish-brown or bluish-grey; upper mandible dark horn, olive-green or bluish-grey, lower mandible whitish or pale grey, cutting edges and tip whitish to yellowish; legs blue-grey, pale pinkish-grey or pale olive-green. Sexes alike, female on average smaller than male. Juvenile resembles adult, but upperparts washed russet, throat washed grey, underparts white. Race orientalis is smaller than nominate, greyer above, slightly paler below.

Systematics History

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Proposed races acedis (R Ogobai, in Gabon) and upembae (S DRCongo) not satisfactorily distinguishable from orientalis (former averages darker above with more rufous tail, latter has paler browner tail). Two subspecies recognized.

Subspecies

SUBSPECIES

Phyllastrephus scandens scandens Scientific name definitions

Phyllastrephus scandens scandens
P. s. scandens

Distribution

Gambia and SW Senegal, E Guinea-Bissau and W Guinea E to N Cameroon.
SUBSPECIES

Phyllastrephus scandens orientalis Scientific name definitions

Phyllastrephus scandens orientalis
P. s. orientalis

Distribution

N Cameroon E to extreme S South Sudan, and S to S Congo and W and S DRCongo (scattered localities in Kwango, Kasai and Katanga); also C Uganda, extreme NE Rwanda, extreme W Tanzania and recently NE Angola (at least Lagoa Carumbo and Capaia in Luanda Norte (1) ).

Distribution

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Habitat

Marked preference for waterside habitats; forest fringing rivers, gallery forest and thicket, also forest patches in savanna and orchard-bush. In forest zone proper, normally found only in areas of Raphia swamp; absent from wetter forest types in some areas (e.g. Upper Guinea and parts of DRCongo). From sea-level to 1200 m; to 1500 m on Mt Nimba, in Liberia.

Movement

Resident, so far as known.

Diet and Foraging

Arthropods, including grasshoppers (Orthoptera), beetles (Coleoptera), caterpillars, termites (Isoptera); also small gastropods, berries and seeds. Occurs in pairs or, more usually, small groups; regularly joins mixed-species parties. Forages energetically and acrobatically at all levels, but mainly in middle and upper strata. Gleans from foliage, clumps of dead leaves, crevices, tree trunks, lianes, etc., and makes short aerial sorties to catch flushed prey and alate termites; also explores leaf litter and exposed roots on ground. Flicks and shivers tail.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Song begins with a few subdued nasal notes, “kawp, kawpa”, then bursts into loud, rapid, exuberant, pleasing, conversational cackling, “kyop-kee-kyop-kyop-ke-kyop”, is uttered repeatedly by family groups in chorus. Variations include sharp, high-pitched “chip-chip-chip-chip-chip” repeated by one or more individuals, others joining occasionally with hoarse “karp” or “koko”.

Breeding

Nesting recorded in Oct in Sudan, Jan in Liberia, Dec–Feb in Ghana, Dec–Jan in Cameroon and Oct–Nov in DRCongo; carrying nesting material in Mar in Togo; birds in breeding condition in Oct–Nov in Nigeria, Jun in Central African Republic and Apr and Jul in Uganda. Territorial. Nest cup-shaped, made of dry leaves, grass and strips of palm frond, unlined, one had internal dimensions of 6 × 7 cm; suspended from small branches of bush or tree overhanging stream, attached by cobwebs and black hair-like fibres which form net around exterior of nest. Clutch 2–3 eggs; incubation by female only; no information available on incubation and nestling periods.

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife LC Least Concern
Not globally threatened. Locally common; has large range, but distribution fragmented. At least some gaps in its distribution are real, as it is not an easy species to overlook. Density estimated at 1 group/3 ha of gallery forest in Semliki (Uganda). Occurs in numerous national parks, including those of Haute Niger, in Guinea, Marahoué, in Ivory Coast, Kakum, in Ghana, Okomu, in Nigeria, Mbam-Djerem, in Cameroon, Lopé, in Gabon, Odzala, in PRCongo, Salonga, in DRCongo, and Semliki, in Uganda.
Distribution of the Leaf-love - Range Map
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Distribution of the Leaf-love

eBird and Macaulay Library

Recommended Citation

Fishpool, L. and J. A. Tobias (2020). Leaf-love (Phyllastrephus scandens), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.leaf-l1.01
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