Laniarius

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Cladus: Sarcopterygii
Cladus: Rhipidistia
Cladus: Tetrapodomorpha
Cladus: Eotetrapodiformes
Cladus: Elpistostegalia
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Archosauromorpha
Cladus: Crurotarsi
Divisio: Archosauria
Cladus: Avemetatarsalia
Cladus: Ornithodira
Subtaxon: Dinosauromorpha
Cladus: Dinosauriformes
Cladus: Dracohors
Cladus: Dinosauria
Ordo: Saurischia
Cladus: Eusaurischia
Subordo: Theropoda
Cladus: Neotheropoda
Cladus: Averostra
Cladus: Tetanurae
Cladus: Avetheropoda
Cladus: Coelurosauria
Cladus: Tyrannoraptora
Cladus: Maniraptoromorpha
Cladus: Maniraptoriformes
Cladus: Maniraptora
Cladus: Pennaraptora
Cladus: Paraves
Cladus: Eumaniraptora
Cladus: Avialae
Infraclassis: Aves
Cladus: Euavialae
Cladus: Avebrevicauda
Cladus: Pygostylia
Cladus: Ornithothoraces
Cladus: Ornithuromorpha
Cladus: Carinatae
Parvclassis: Neornithes
Cohors: Neognathae
Cladus: Neoaves
Cladus: Telluraves
Cladus: Australaves
Ordo: Passeriformes
Subordo: Passeri
Infraordo: Corvida
Superfamilia: Corvoidea

Familia: Malaconotidae
Genus: Laniarius
Species: L. aethiopicus – L. amboimensis – L. atrococcineus – L. atroflavus – L. barbarus – L. bicolor – L. brauni – L. erythrogaster – L. ferrugineus – L. fuelleborni – L. funebris – L. holomelas – L. leucorhynchus – L. luehderi – L. major – L. mufumbiri – L. nigerrimus – L. poensis – L. ruficeps – L. sublacteus – L. turatii – L. willardi
Name

Laniarius Vieillot, 1816
References
Primary references

Vieillot, L.J.P. 1816. Analyse d'une nouvelle ornithologie élémentaire. 70 pp. Paris: Deterville. : 41 BHL Reference page.

Additional references

Nguembock, B., J. Fjeldså, A. Couloux, and E. Pasquet. 2008. Phylogeny of Laniarius: Molecular data reveal L. liberatus synonymous with L. erlangeri and "plumage coloration" as unreliable morphological characters for defining species and species groups. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 48: 396–407.
Finch, B. W., Hunter, N. D., Winkelmann, I., Manzano-Vargas, K., Njoroge, P., Fjeldså, J., & Gilbert, M. T. P. 2016. Redefining the taxonomy of the all-black and pied boubous (Laniarius spp.) in coastal Kenya and Somalia. Bull. B.O.C. 136 (2): 74-85.

Vernacular names
مصرى: دقام
العربية: دقام
فارسی: زنگ‌آواها
suomi: Tropiikkilepinkäiset
русский: Певчие сорокопуты
Kiswahili: Tiva
українська: Гонолек

Laniarius is a genus of brightly coloured, carnivorous passerine birds commonly known as boubous or gonoleks. Not to be confused with the similar-sounding genus Lanius, they were formerly classed with the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, but they and related genera are now considered sufficiently distinctive to be separated from that group as the bush-shrike family Malaconotidae.

This is an African group of species which are found in scrub or open woodland. They are similar in habits to shrikes, hunting insects and other small prey from a perch on a bush. Although similar in build to the shrikes, these tend to be either colourful species or largely black. Some species are also quite secretive.
Taxonomy and systematics

The genus Laniarius was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816 with the yellow-crowned gonolek as the type species.[1]

The closest relatives of the genus appear to be the genus Chlorophoneus. Previously, members of the genus Laniarius had been classified on the basis of plumage. However, a 2008 molecular study found that the species had developed different colours and patterns in plumage independently and similar-coloured species were often unrelated. The authors hypothesized that the ancestor of the genus may have been dark-coloured.[2]

There are 22 recognised species:[3]
Image Common Name Scientific name Distribution
Lowland sooty boubou Laniarius leucorhynchus Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Togo, and Uganda.
Mountain sooty boubou Laniarius poensis Nigeria, Bioko; Rwanda, Burundi and adjacent areas of Uganda and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Albertine sooty boubou Laniarius holomelas Uganda and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Willard’s sooty boubou Laniarius willardi Burundi and Uganda
Fuelleborn's boubou Laniarius fuelleborni Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia
Slate-colored Boubou, Serengeti.jpg Slate-colored boubou Laniarius funebris Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Lühder's Bushshrike.jpg Lühder's bushshrike Laniarius luehderi Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Braun's bushshrike Laniarius brauni Angola
Gabela bushshrike Laniarius amboimensis Angola.
Red-naped bushshrike Laniarius ruficeps Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia
Black boubou Laniarius nigerrimus Somalia and northern Kenya.
Ethiopian boubou Laniarius aethiopicus Eritrea, Ethiopia, northwest Somalia, and northern Kenya.
Tropical Boubou, Sakania, DRC (9436772164).jpg Tropical boubou Laniarius major sub-Saharan Africa
East Coast boubou Laniarius sublacteus southeast Somalia to northeast Tanzania, and Zanzibar island.
Southern Boubou (Laniarius ferrugineus).jpg Southern boubou Laniarius ferrugineus southeastern Zimbabwe, eastern Botswana, Mozambique and southern and eastern South Africa
Swamp boubou Laniarius bicolor Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, DRC, Gabon, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Turati's boubou Laniarius turatii Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone
Flickr - Rainbirder - Yellow-crowned Gonolek (Laniarius barbarus).jpg Yellow-crowned gonolek Laniarius barbarus Senegal and Democratic Republic of Congo east to Ethiopia.
Papyrus Gonolek (Laniarius mufumbiri) - Kibale National Park, Uganda.jpg Papyrus gonolek Laniarius mufumbiri Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda
Black-headed Gonolek RWD.jpg Black-headed gonolek Laniarius erythrogaster Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Laniarius atrococcineus -Pretoria, South Africa-8 (2).jpg Crimson-breasted shrike Laniarius atrococcineus southern Angola to the Free State province in South Africa.
Yellow-breasted boubou Laniarius atroflavus western Cameroon and adjacent southeastern Nigeria

Formerly, some authorities also considered the following species (or subspecies) as species within the genus Laniarius:

Rufous whistler (as Laniarius rubrigaster)[4]

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Laniarius.

Vieillot, Louis Jean Pierre (1816). Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Élémentaire (in French). Paris: Deterville/self. p. 41.
Nguembock, Billy; Fjeldså, Jon; Couloux, Arnaud; Pasquet, Eric (2008). "Phylogeny of Laniarius: molecular data reveal L. liberatus synonymous with L. erlangeri and "plumage coloration" as unreliable morphological characters for defining species and species groups". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 48 (2): 396–407. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2008.04.014. PMID 18514549.
Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Batises, woodshrikes, bushshrikes, vangas". World Bird List Version 9.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
Australia, Atlas of Living. "Pachycephala (Alisterornis) rufiventris rufiventris | Atlas of Living Australia". bie.ala.org.au. Retrieved 2017-02-06.