Southern Boubou Shrike

Laniarius ferrugineus

Boubous (boo-boo) commonly seek food low down in dense vegetation or on the ground, although they will also forage in leafy tree canopies.  They occur impairs or singletons and are not always easy to

see, but they draw attention to themselves with their loud, fluting duets which enable mated birds to keep in contact when out of sight of each other.

The French explorer and bird collector François le Vaillant, using an onomatopoeic description of its call, first coined the name “boubou”.  The “boo-boo” calls are only part of the boubou’s repertoire for, like other birds that frequent habitats with poor visibility, they compensate for poor visual contact opportunities by being noisy, uttering harsh snarls, shrieks, rattles or “tiks”, depending on their activity.

As indicated by its name, the Southern Boubou’s distribution is largely restricted to the region below 22^°S, being replaced north of that latitude by the similar, but whiter-flanked Tropical Boubou, L. aethiopicus that ranges from Zimbabwe north.

Southern Boubous are largely absent from the Free State, Karoo and neighbouring arid, treeless regions, but they can be found in all the southern and south-eastern coastal regions from Gauteng north to the Limpopo.

Boubou’s feed largely on insects and other invertebrates for much of the year, but being rapacious birds, are ever ready to rob other birds’ nests of eggs or chicks.

So, during the spring nesting season birds that normally ignore this bird, will give the alarm as soon as one is spotted in their territory.

Boubous become particularly secretive when breeding and are so intolerant of disturbance that they may abandon the nest, which is a rather loosely woven shallow cup of twigs, rootlets and dry grass, usually well hidden in a thickly foliaged bush.  Two (or sometimes three) light greenish eggs, thickly marked by browns and greys, are laid on consecutive days and are incubated for 16-17 days by both birds.  The nestlings fledge after 16 days and are attended by the adult pair for some six to seven weeks.  The juveniles are clearly recognisable as boubous, albeit in rather buffy plumage and are known to be practice-perfect in the duet calls at the age of three to four months.  Practice is indeed needed, for initial efforts at “hoo-whee” calls are hardly recognisable, although quite entertaining, especially if the youngster is visible when rehearsing.