Green-backed camaroptera

The green-backed camaroptera (Camaroptera brachyura), also known as the bleating camaroptera, is a small bird in the family Cisticolidae. This bird is a resident breeder in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Recent studies suggest this species and the grey-backed camaroptera may be the same species.

Green-backed camaroptera
Photographed in Malawi
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Cisticolidae
Genus: Camaroptera
Species:
C. brachyura
Binomial name
Camaroptera brachyura
(Vieillot, 1821)

This skulking passerine is typically found low in dense cover. The green-backed camaroptera binds large leaves together low in a bush and builds a grass nest within the leaves. The normal clutch is two or three eggs.

These 11.5 cm long warblers have green upperparts. The wings are olive and the underparts whitish grey. The sexes are similar, but juveniles are paler yellow on the breast.

Like most members in the group, green-backed camaroptera is insectivorous.

The green-backed camaroptera was described by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1821 under the binomial name Sylvia brachyura. The type locality is the Cape of Good Hope.[2][3] The specific epithet brachyura is from the Ancient Greek brakhus for "short" and -ouros for "-tailed".[4]

There are five subspecies:[5]

  • C. b. pileata Reichenow, 1891 – southeast Kenya to southeast Tanzania
  • C. b. fugglescouchmani Moreau, 1939 – northeast Zambia, north Malawi and east Tanzania
  • C. b. bororensis Gunning & Roberts, 1911 – south Tanzania, south Malawi and north Mozambique
  • C. b. constans Clancey, 1952 – southeast Zimbabwe, south Mozambique and northeast South Africa
  • C. b. brachyura (Vieillot, 1821) – south and east South Africa

References
  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Camaroptera brachyura". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  2. Vieillot, Louis Jean Pierre (1821). Tableau encyclopédique et méthodique des trois règnes de la nature. Ornithologie (in French). Part 2. Paris: Agasse. p. 459. Title page dated 1823
  3. Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1986). Check-list of Birds of the World. Volume 11. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 187.
  4. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 76. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2017). "Grassbirds, Donacobius, Malagasy warblers, cisticolas & allies". World Bird List Version 7.3. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
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