The little greenbul (''Eurillas virens'') is a species 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. It is found in many parts of

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The little greenbul was originally described in the genus ''

Andropadus The sombre greenbul (''Andropadus importunus'') is a member of the bulbul family of passerine birds. It is a resident breeder in coastal bush, evergreen forest and dry shrub land in eastern and southern Africa. It is the only member of the genus ...

'' and was re-classified to the genus ''Eurillas'' in 2010. Alternatively, some authorities classify the little greenbul in the genus ''

Pycnonotus ''Pycnonotus'' is a genus of frugivorous passerine birds in the bulbul family Pycnonotidae. Taxonomy and systematics The genus ''Pycnonotus'' was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1826 with the Cape bulbul as the type specie ...

''.

Subspecies

Five

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

are recognized: * ''E. v. amadoni'' - (

Dickerman Dickerman may refer to: * Charles Heber Dickerman (1843–1915), Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania * Ernie Dickerman (1910–1998), American wilderness advocate and conservationist * Leah Dickerman, Director o ...

, 1997): Found on

Bioko Bioko (; ; ; historically known as Fernando Pó, ) is an island of Equatorial Guinea. It is located south of the coast of Cameroon, and northwest of the northernmost part of mainland Equatorial Guinea. Malabo, on the north coast of the is ...

* Upper Guinea little greenbul (''E. v. erythroptera'') - ( Hartlaub, 1858): Found from Gambia to southern Nigeria * ''E. v. virens'' - ( Cassin, 1857): Found from western Cameroon to southern Sudan, western Kenya, southern Democratic Republic of Congo and northern Angola * ''E. v. zanzibarica'' - Pakenham, 1935: Found on

Zanzibar Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. ...

* ''E. v. zombensis'' - ( Shelley, 1894): Found from south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and northern Zambia to south-eastern Kenya and northern Mozambique. Includes Hall's greenbul (''Eurillas virens '' 'hallae'', named after the British ornithologist

Pat Hall Beryl Patricia Hall, née Woodhouse (13 June 1917 – 26 August 2010) was a British ornithologist, associated with the Natural History Museum. She is best known for her work on African birds. She also wrote a book of whimsical poems with Derek Go ...

and which is only known from a single specimen taken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Hall's greenbul may be a

melanistic Melanism is the congenital excess of melanin in an organism resulting in dark pigment. Pseudomelanism, also called abundism, is another variant of pigmentation, identifiable by dark spots or enlarged stripes, which cover a large part of the bod ...

form of ''E. v. zombensis''.

Description

The little greenbul is a small bird reaching a total length of about 187 mm, with wings of about 80 mm and tail of about 77 mm. The upper tail and wings are brown, while breast and flanks are pale grey-greenish (hence the Latin name ''virens'' of this species, meaning "green"). The bill is brown, the iris is brown and the feet are light yellow-brown.

Distribution and habitat

The little greenbul is found in western, central and eastern Africa. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s are subtropical or tropical dry

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

s, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, and moist

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

Behaviour and ecology

The little greenbul was the subject of a study regarding the impact of

ecotone An ecotone is a transitional area between two plant communities, where these meet and integrate. Examples include areas between grassland and forest, estuaries and lagoon, freshwater and sea water etc. An ecotone may be narrow or wide, and it ma ...

s on

biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...

References

Andropadus virens

2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Downloaded on 24 July 2007.
BirdLife International
* Dr. G. Carmichael Low
Bulletin of the british ornithologist club – Vol LV.

little greenbul The little greenbul (''Eurillas virens'') is a species of the bulbul family of passerine birds. It is found in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Taxonomy and systematics The little greenbul was originally described in the genus ''Andropadus'' an ...

Birds of the Gulf of Guinea

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Pycnonotidae-stub