Laniarius
| Laniarus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Yellow-crowned gonolek Laniarius barbarus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Malaconotidae |
| Genus: | Laniarius Vieillot, 1816 |
| Species | |
|
About 15-20, see text | |
Laniarius is a genus of brightly coloured, carnivorous passerine birds commonly known as boubous or gonoleks. Not to be confused with the similar-sounding genus Lanius, they were formerly classed with the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, but they and related genera are now considered sufficiently distinctive to be separated from that group as the bush-shrike family Malaconotidae.
This is an African group of species which are found in scrub or open woodland. They are similar in habits to shrikes, hunting insects and other small prey from a perch on a bush. Although similar in build to the shrikes, these tend to be either colourful species or largely black. Some species are also quite secretive.
The closest relatives of the genus appear to be the genus Chlorophoneus. Previously, members of the genus Laniarius had been classified on the basis of plumage. However, a 2008 molecular study found that the species had developed different colours and patterns in plumage independently and similar-coloured species were often unrelated. The authors hypothesized that the ancestor of the genus may have been dark-coloured.[1]
Species
- Red-naped bushshrike, Laniarius ruficeps
- Lühder's bushshrike, Laniarius luehderi
- Gabela bushshrike or Amboim bushshrike, Laniarius amboimensis
- Braun's bushshrike, Laniarius brauni
- Turati's boubou, Laniarius turatii
- Ethiopian boubou, Laniarius aethiopicus
- Tropical boubou, Laniarius major
- East Coast boubou, Laniarius sublacteus
- Black boubou, Laniarius nigerrimus – includes the "Bulo Burti boubou" ("L. liberatus")[1]
- Swamp boubou, Laniarius bicolor
- Southern boubou, Laniarius ferrugineus
- Yellow-crowned gonolek, Laniarius barbarus
- Black-headed gonolek, Laniarius erythrogaster
- Crimson-breasted shrike, Laniarius atrococcineus
- Papyrus gonolek, Laniarius mufumbiri
- Yellow-breasted boubou, Laniarius atroflavus
- Slate-colored boubou, Laniarius funebris
- Lowland sooty boubou, Laniarius leucorhynchus
- Willard’s sooty boubou, Laniarius willardi Voelker & Gnoske, 2010
- Mountain sooty boubou, Laniarius poensis
- Fuelleborn's boubou, Laniarius fuelleborni
References
- 1 2 Nguembock, Billy; Fjeldså, Jon; Couloux, Arnaud; Pasquet, Eric (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.
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