Explore Taxonomy
Order
Passeriformes
Family
Pycnonotidae
Genus
Arizelocichla
Surprise Me
Previous Cameroon Mountain Greenbul
Next Western Mountain Greenbul
- Shelley's Greenbul (Shelley's)
© Charley Hesse TROPICAL BIRDING
- Shelley's Greenbul (Shelley's)
- Shelley's Greenbul (Kakamega)
+3
- Shelley's Greenbul (Shelley's)
- Shelley's Greenbul (Kakamega)
- Shelley's Greenbul (Kakamega)
- Shelley's Greenbul (Shelley's)
Watch
- Shelley's Greenbul (Kakamega)
Listen

Shelley's Greenbul Arizelocichla masukuensis Scientific name definitions

Lincoln Fishpool, Joseph A. Tobias, and Eduardo de Juana
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated December 12, 2014

Sign in to see your badges

Originally Appeared in

HBW Alive

Field Identification

16·5–17 cm; male 22–28g, female 20–25 g (kakamegae). A medium-sized, montane greenbul with distinctive foraging behaviour. Nominate race has top and side of head olive-green, narrow contrasting white broken eyering, some indistinct darker and paler streaking on ear-coverts; upperparts, including wings and tail, brighter greenish-olive, brightest on rump and uppertail-coverts; throat grey-olive; underparts dull olive-green, paler than upperparts, palest and washed yellow on centre of breast and belly; iris brown to red-brown or chestnut; upper mandible black or dark brown, lower mandible grey, blue-grey or slate; legs slaty blue to blue-grey to grey-green or green. Differs from Eurillas gracilis and E. ansorgei in larger size, more empahatically grey head (kakamegae), more yellow underparts; from A. milanjensis in smaller size, duller underparts, less obviously pale-streaked ear-coverts. Sexes alike, female on average smaller thana male. Juvenile resembles adult, but duller above, breast and crown more olive. Race roehli has top of head somewhat duller than nominate, eyering wider, side of head greyer, throat grey, underparts more grey-olive; kakamegae has grey head, throat also grey, underparts brighter, more yellow-olive, than nominate; kungwensis is also grey-headed, top of head dark grey, throat paler grey than face, breast pale grey with greenish wash, greener on belly and flanks.

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.

See A. montana. Race kungwensis originally described under A. tephrolaema, when that was considered conspecific with A. nigriceps. Grey-headed races (kakamegae, kungwensis) considered an incipient species and hence split in 1990 (1), an arrangement still sometimes followed; but all taxa are very close morphologically, and voice of kungwensis very similar to that of roehli (2). Four subspecies recognized.

Subspecies

EBIRD GROUP (POLYTYPIC)

Shelley's Greenbul (Kakamega) Arizelocichla masukuensis kakamegae/kungwensis

Arizelocichla masukuensis kakamegae
A. m. kakamegae
Available illustrations of subspecies in this group
SUBSPECIES

Arizelocichla masukuensis kakamegae Scientific name definitions

Distribution
E DRCongo (from SE edge of Ituri S to Mt Kabobo), SW Uganda (Kalinzu, Bwindi), SW Rwanda, W Burundi, W Tanzania (Kigoma) and W Kenya.
SUBSPECIES

Arizelocichla masukuensis kungwensis Scientific name definitions

Distribution
Kungwe-Mahale Mts, in W Tanzania.
EBIRD GROUP (POLYTYPIC)

Shelley's Greenbul (Shelley's) Arizelocichla masukuensis masukuensis/roehli

Arizelocichla masukuensis roehli
A. m. roehli
Arizelocichla masukuensis masukuensis
A. m. masukuensis
Available illustrations of subspecies in this group
SUBSPECIES

Arizelocichla masukuensis roehli Scientific name definitions

Distribution
NE, C and SW Tanzania (from South Pare Mts and Usambaras S in Eastern Arc range to Songea and Njombe).
SUBSPECIES

Arizelocichla masukuensis masukuensis Scientific name definitions

Distribution
SW Tanzania (Rungwe, Ukinga) and extreme N Malawi (Misuku Hills).

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

Montane and mid-altitude forest, also gallery forest; 1000–2300 m in DRCongo, 900–2300 in E Africa, 1600–2000 m in Malawi; commonest at 1300–1500 m in Eastern Arc Mts of Tanzania.

Movement

Largely resident; some movement to lower altitudes during cold/dry seasons recorded in Tanzania (E Usambara, at 350 m (3), and Kimboza Forest Reserve, at 300 m (4) ), and record of an individual at 1250 m in riparian forest in Malawi may represent another instance of such movement.

Diet and Foraging

Arthropods and small fruits. Fruits recorded in diet include Harungana, Maesa, Maesopsis, Renealmia, Trema, Urera. Insects may form up to 90% of diet in wet season, falling to less than 60% in dry season. Usually occurs singly or in pairs, in larger numbers at fruiting trees. Regularly joins mixed parties, more so in dry season, and has been recorded as attending Dorylus ant swarms. Unobtrusive, but not particularly shy. Forages at all levels, from ground layer to canopy, most commonly between 4 m and 8 m; tends to forage higher in dry season. Feeds in dense tangles of lianes and shrubs and low thickets (e.g. of Dracaena and Acanthopale); regularly works over outer edges of foliage for berries and insects. Also has distinctive habit (nominate race, roehli and kakamegae, at least) of systematically gleaning from bark of large tree trunks and vertical branches and stems, by clinging to them while searching in crevices, behind loose bark, in epiphytic mosses and similar places; regularly does this by starting at base of a large tree, working up it in short hops for 6–10 m, then flying down to base of next tree and repeating process. Also gleans insects from sides and undersurfaces of horizontal branches. Occasionally flicks wings while feeding.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Relatively little known. Race roehli has fairly loud, simple “ke-kew-ke-kew-ke”, soft, nasal “kwew, kwa, kwew” and subdued “wit-wit-wit”; nominate has soft, lilting song of c. 8 notes, “chip, wa-da-tee, chee-tu, ti-wew”, repeated with little variation; kakamegae largely silent.

Breeding

Feb and Sept–Nov in DRCongo, in Jan–Feb, Jul–Aug and Oct–Dec in Tanzania, and in Oct–Nov in Malawi; birds in breeding condition in Mar and Oct–Nov in Uganda and in Jun in Kenya. Nest a shallow cup, external diameter 7·5–9 cm, internal diameter 5 cm, made of fibrous material such as vine tendrils, rootlets, flower stalks, veins from skeletonized leaves and moss, unlined or lined with black fibre (possibly Marasmius hyphae), placed 1·5–5 m above ground in fork of small sapling. Clutch 1–2 eggs; no information on incubation and nestling periods.

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife LC Least Concern
Not globally threatened. Generally fairly common, and even locally abundant. Densities difficult to assess owing to this species’ relative lack of vocalizations; in Eastern Arc range of Tanzania, up to c.35 individuals/km² reported in one study and 168 individuals/100 ha in Udzungwa Mts in another. Occurs in several national parks, including Virunga National Park, in DRCongo, Kibira National Park, in Burundi, Bwindi-Impenetrable Forest National Park, in Uganda, and Udzungwa and Mahali Mountain National Parks, in Tanzania; also in numerous forest reserves, including those of Nyungwe, in Rwanda, Kakamega, in Kenya, East and West Usambara and Uluguru Mountains, in Tanzania, and Misuku Hills, in Malawi.
Distribution of the Shelley's Greenbul - Range Map
Enlarge
  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Shelley's Greenbul

eBird and Macaulay Library

Recommended Citation

Fishpool, L., J. A. Tobias, and E. de Juana (2020). Shelley's Greenbul (Arizelocichla masukuensis), 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.shegre1.01
Birds of the World

Partnerships

A global alliance of nature organizations working to document the natural history of all bird species at an unprecedented scale.

American Ornithological Society American Ornithilogical Society Armonia Bolivia Aves Argentinas Avibase Aves Uruguay Birds Caribbean Bird Count India Conservación de Islas Corbidi Fundación Ñankulafkén Instituto Humboldt Lynx Edicions Oikonos Oriental Bird Club Ornithological Society Of The Middle East The Caucasus And Central Asia RED DE OBSERVADORES DE AVES Y VIDA SILVESTRE DE CHILE Roberts Birds Save Brasil Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute Union Venezolana De Ornitologos