Sombre Greenbul

Common resident. Southern morph (a) is plain olive-green; northern morph (b), in lower Zambezi valley and beyond, is much yellower, upper parts greener. Eye colour diagnostic: creamy-white in adults of both colour morphs, greyish in immatures. Heard more often than seen. Usually calls a strident ‘Willie!’; in the breeding season followed by a babbling trill. In southern coastal bush, call is often shortened to ‘peeeit’, usually answered by others of the same species. When agitated, this call becomes ‘peeet peeet peeet…‘ in rapid succession. Usually occurs singly in forest fringes and adjacent thickets, riverine forest and well-wooded valleys; especially common in coastal bush. Not particularly secretive, but cryptic coloration makes it difficult to see.