Bushshrikes

Type:
Aves

Diet:
Bushshrike diets consist mainly of large insects, but occasionally may include wild fruits and berries and sometimes rodents. They catch their prey by gleaning among tree foliage.

Size:
The bushshrikes are smallish passerine birds. 

Weight:

Protection Status:

General Background:
The bushshrikes are smallish passerine birds. They were formerly classed with the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, but are now considered sufficiently distinctive to be separated from that group as the 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 quite secretive.

Some bushshrikes have flamboyant displays. The male puffbacks puff out the loose feathers on their rump and lower back, to look almost ball-like.

These are mainly insectivorous forest or scrub birds. Up to four eggs are laid in a cup nest in a tree.Bushshrikes are small to medium-sized passerines, with short, rounded wings and strong legs and feet. Plumage is typically black, grey, and brown, with some yellow and green. Some bush shrikes have red undersides or red throat-patches

Bushshrikes typically inhabit forest margins or patches of bush in savannah. Some species have been known to inhabit coffee plantations.Their nests are generally small and neat, and they lay clutches of 2-3 eggs.

Bushshrikes have distinctive harsh or guttural calls, which may be sung as duets. Male and female birds are able to learn songs of similar complexity, and both sexes have similarly-sized repertoire.  Songs may be sung to indicate territory or as part of courtship. A 1992 study of the calls of Laniarius funebris found that a male’s likelihood of singing a mating song was correlated with his mate’s estradiol levels, rather than his own testosterone levels, suggesting that behavioral cues between a mating pair, rather than hormone levels, are most important in triggering mating songs.

Places in which they are found in Zimbabwe:

• Occur around the country