Pringle's Puffback Dryoscopus pringlii Scientific name definitions

13·5–14 cm; male 19–22·5 g, female 13–20·5 g. Male has forehead and lores back to hindneck, side of neck, mantle and scapulars glossy bluish-black, back medium grey, rump whitish, uppertail-coverts glossy black; tail black, tips of feathers T2-T5 greyish-white, outermost rectrix with greyish-white tip and outer edge (2 mm deep); upperwing dark brown, primaries with narrow grey-buff outer edges, inner secondaries and tertials with whitish outer edges and tips, greater primary coverts with narrow white or whitish edges, greater and median secondary coverts with broader (1–2 mm wide) white or whitish edges and tips; chin and throat creamy or greyish-white, grading into pale grey on breast and pale brownish-grey on flanks; belly white (at least in middle), thighs grey, vent and undertail-coverts whitish; underside of flight-feathers shiny grey, underwing-coverts and axillaries white; underside of tail grey, feathers fringed whitish; iris dark red; bill black, basal half of lower mandible pale horn; legs grey-black. Female is rather nondescript, being greyish-brown above, lores and cheeks buffy whitish, narrow white ring around eye, rump whitish (when brown feather tips displaced), tail uniformly brown, pale creamy or greyish-buff below, grading to white on belly and undertail-coverts, with thighs pale brown; upper mandible black, lower mandible mostly or entirely whitish, legs blue-grey, soles pale greyish. Juvenile is like female but duller and buffier; immature like adult female, but head and mantle mottled brownish, eyes crimson, legs purplish.

S Ethiopia, C & S Somalia, NW, NE & C to SE Kenya and NE Tanzania.

Poorly known. Song short, low-pitched, harsh and monotonous. Calls  include rasping, nasal "cheee-tzrrrr", rapidly repeated "zitiitzitiitziiiit", and "chup-chup-chup"; repeated sharp "keu" often given by several birds together; and a low-pitched churr.