Black-backed Puffback
Dryoscopus cubla
Woodland. Pied with red eyes. Male puffs out white back.
Shrikes
LC
Not Endemic
Description
Common resident. Small pied bird with crimson, orange or yellow eyes. Female has a white forehead and eyebrow; both sexes have distinctive wing-barring. When excited, male erects its back feathers to form a puff (see illustration). May fly from tree to tree like this while calling sharply ‘chick-weeu, chick-weeu…’; this call also uttered less frequently while feeding. Flies in a heavy manner, the wings making a distinct purring sound. Pairs, often in bird parties, occur in woodland, riverine bush and evergreen forest fringes in the canopies of large trees.
Quick Facts
Size
18 cm - S
Names
A: Sneeubal
Z: isicivo
Ss: Tshemedi-Hlahlankata
G: Schneeballwürger
Bird Family
Insectivorous or partially carnivorous birds with stout, hooked or slightly hooked bills. They are sometimes known as ‘butcher birds' (genus *Lanius* means ‘butcher') because of their habit of sometimes impaling insects or small animals on a thorn or fence wire, returning later to eat. Habitat preference is for open woodland, where they will still-hunt from a perch.
Distribution
Gallery
Behaviour
Breeding
Habitat
Pairs, often in bird parties, occur in woodland, riverine bush and evergreen 'forest' fringes in the canopies of large trees.
