Rosy-patched bushshrike

The rosy-patched bushshrike (Rhodophoneus cruentus) is a species of bird in the family Malaconotidae. It is the only species placed in the genus Rhodophoneus. It is found in Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Tanzania. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.

Taxonomy

The rosy-patched bushshrike was formally described in 1828 as Lanius cruentus by the German naturalists Wilhelm Hemprich and Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg based on specimens collected at Arkiko near Massawa in Eritrea. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "bloody" or "stained with blood". It is now the only species placed in the genus Rhodophoneus which was introduced in 1871 by the German explorer and ornithologist Theodor von Heuglin to accommodate a single species, the rosy-patched bushshrike. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek ῥοδον/rhodon meaning "rose" with φονευς/phoneus meaning "murderer".

Four subspecies are recognised:

• R. c. kordofanicus Sclater, WL & Mackworth-Praed, CW, 1918 – west-central Sudan
• R. c. cruentus (Hemprich, WF & Ehrenberg, CG, 1828) – northeastern Sudan, Eritrea, and northern Ethiopia
• R. c. hilgerti (Neumann, OR, 1903) – far southeastern South Sudan, southern and eastern Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, and northern and eastern Kenya
• R. c. cathemagmenus (Reichenow, A, 1887) – southern Kenya (Tsavo and Lake Victoria) to northeastern Tanzania

Gallery

References