The golden greenbul (''Calyptocichla serinus'') is a member of the

bulbul The bulbuls are members of a family, Pycnonotidae, of medium-sized passerine songbirds, which also includes greenbuls, brownbuls, leafloves, and bristlebills. The family is distributed across most of Africa and into the Middle East, tropic ...

family of

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 generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s native to the African tropical rainforest. It is the only member of the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Calyptocichla''.

Taxonomy and systematics

The golden greenbul was originally described in the genus ''

Criniger ''Criniger'' is a genus of songbirds in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. The species of ''Criniger'' are found in western and central Africa. Taxonomy The genus ''Criniger'' was introduced in 1820 by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck, ...

''. It is not closely related to any of the other greenbul species, forming a separate

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

from the two main clades which make up the bulbul family

Pycnonotidae The bulbuls are members of a family (biology), family, Pycnonotidae, of medium-sized perching bird, passerine songbirds, which also includes greenbuls, brownbuls, leafloves, and bristlebills. The family is distributed across most of Africa and in ...

.Moyle, Robert G. Ben D. Marks (2006) Phylogenetic relationships of the bulbuls (Aves: Pycnonotidae) based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data. ''

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of evolutionary biology and phylogenetics. The journal is edited by E.A. Zimmer. Indexing The journal is indexed in: * EMBiology *Journal Citation Reports *Scopus ...

'' 40 (3): Pages 687-695 (HTML abstract) Alternate names for the golden greenbul include the serene bulbul and serene greenbul.

Description

The golden greenbul is brightly coloured for a greenbul due to its bright yellow belly and white throat; otherwise it is not particularly distinct in

plumage Plumage () is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, there can b ...

, with unmarked olive upperparts, tail and wings. It has a long slender pinkish-brown bill, a feature not shared by other greenbuls.Sinclair, Ian and Peter Ryan (2003) ''Birds of Africa South of the Sahara''

Distribution and habitat

The species is found in forests from Sierra Leone to Ghana; south-eastern Nigeria and western Cameroon to Central African Republic and extreme north-western Angola.

References

golden greenbul The golden greenbul (''Calyptocichla serinus'') is a member of the bulbul family of passerine birds native to the African tropical rainforest. It is the only member of the genus ''Calyptocichla''. Taxonomy and systematics The golden greenbul w ...

Birds of the African tropical rainforest

{{pycnonotidae-stub