The brubru (''Nilaus afer'') is a species of bushshrike (family Malaconotidae) found in most of

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

. It is the only member of the genus ''Nilaus''.

Distribution and habitat

Its habitat is dry open woodland, but varies geographically. The six northern races and the subspecies ''N. a. Brubru'' of southern Africa are found in

acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...

and broadleaved woodland, whereas the three subspecies in a belt from northeastern

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

and northern

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

east to

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

and northern

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

occur in ''

Brachystegia ''Brachystegia'' is a genus of tree of the subfamily Detarioideae that is native to tropical Africa. Trees of the genus are commonly known as miombo, and are dominant in the miombo woodlands of central and southern tropical Africa. The Zambezi ...

miombo The Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located primarily in Central Africa. It includes four woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) characterized b ...

woodland.

Description

The brubru is a small

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

, 12–15 cm long. The adult male of the nominate subspecies, ''N. a. afer'', has a black crown, white

supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also ...

and forehead, and black eyestripe. The back is black with a tawny strip, the rump is mottled black, and the tail is black with white tips and edges to the outer feathers. The wings are black with a buff shoulder stripe. The underparts are white with rufous flanks. The female is duller and browner, with some streaking on the underparts and less rufous on the flanks. The juvenile is mottled brown, buff and white above, with buff edgings to the wing and tail feathers. Its underparts are whitish with brown barring. The male of the most distinctive of the other subspecies, ''N. a. nigritemporalis'', occurring in the central belt across Africa, has no supercilium and a white, not buff, shoulder patch. Other subspecies differ in the extent of the supercilium and rufous flanks, and the shade and degree of streaking of the underparts. The song is a duet. The male gives a soft ''prrrrruuu'' call, often answered by the female's ''eeeu''.

Behaviour

The brubru is usually solitary or found in pairs; it is a restless but unobtrusive arboreal species which hunts

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s in the canopy. Its need for large trees in which to feed means that it has an unusually large territory for a bird of its size, typically 35 hectares. If insects are abundant, it will join

mixed-species feeding flock A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while foraging. These ar ...

Breeding

The flimsy cup nest is constructed from twigs, grass and spider webs in a tree fork, and decorated with

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.quill mites Syringophilidae is a family of mites, commonly known as quill mites. They are obligatory ectoparasites of birds, and inhabit their feather quills where they feed on subcutaneous tissue and fluids. Typically the Syringophilinae inhabit all but the ...

, ''Neoaulonastus malaconotus'' and ''Syringophiloidus nkaii'', have been identified as ectoparasites of the brubru. They belong to the Syringophilinae, which are known to infect several bushshrike species.

References

* Barlow, Wacher and Disley, ''Birds of The Gambia'' * Harris and Franklin, ''Shrikes & Bush Shrikes'' (Christopher Helm, 2000) *

External links

*Brubru
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
{{Taxonbar, from=Q850113 Malaconotidae Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa Birds described in 1801