Yet another feathered friend observed in our village

Our village abounds with a remarkable variety of bird species. At various times we have reported sightings of blue waxbill, striped cuckoo, crested barbet, arrowmarked babbler, gymnogene, redbilled wood-hoopoe, grey lourie, olive thrush and blackeyed bulbul, to name but a few.

A resident recently reported that he had seen two southern boubou (Afrikaans: suidelike waterfiskaal).

A southern boubou

The male southern boubou is a fairly distinctive smallish bird with black upperparts extending from the top of the head down to the tail, a striking white wing stripe, and a relatively long black tail with white outer feathers. The underparts are white shading to rufous on the lower belly, undertail and flanks. The bill, eyes and legs are black.

The female is similar to the male, but dark grey above and with a rufous wash to the breast. Young birds are like the female, but mottled buff-brown above, have a buff wash to the wing bar, and are barred below.

The rufous on the underparts gives this species its scientific name, i.e. Lanius collaris. It superficially resembles the southern fiscal, but is shorter tailed, has more white in the wing, and is much less conspicuous in its habits.

Unlike the true shrikes, which perch conspicuously in the open, the southern boubou prefers to forage in vegetation close to the ground, a habit which has led to its being called shy. The food is mainly insects, taken from the ground or picked off vegetation as the bird creeps low in bushes. It will also take small rodents, lizards, snails and fruit.

The southern boubou has a duetted call, with a ooo-whee-ooo, followed by a whistled ooo-ooo-wheee or wheee-wheee followed by ooo-whee-ooo. The duet has many variations. Its alarm call is a muted cluck.

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