Bulo Burti Boubou

Taxobox
name = Bulo Burti Boubou

---

status = CR | status_system = IUCN3.1
trend = unknown
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Passeriformes
familia = Malaconotidae
genus = " Laniarius "
species = "L. liberatus"
binomial = "Laniarius liberatus"
binomial_authority = Smith, Arctander, Fjeldså & Amir, 1991

The Bulo Burti Boubou ("Laniarius liberatus") is a medium-sized passerine bird in the bushshrike family. It remains known only from central Somalia, 140 km inland in Hiiraan "gobolka" (region) near Buuloburde (Buulobarde, Bulo Burti) on the Shebelle River.

This species is known from a single individual trapped in 1988, and was described using blood and feather samples to provide a DNA sequence. Apparently for the first time for a modern bird description, no specimen (either the bird itself or a part thereof) was retained as a type; the bird itself was released back into the wild in 1990 because the scientists who caught it felt that the species was very rare. The blood and feather samples were destroyed in the process of sequencing. The species name of "liberatus" ("the liberated one") was given due to this fact. It is critically endangered and it was not found during searches in 1989 and 1990. It resembles the Red-naped Bush-shrike "L. ruficeps" but has no red nape, is black, not grey, on the mantle, and is washed buffy-yellow on throat and breast.

Taxonomic debate

In 2008, a new review of the molecular sequence data revealed the identity of the Bulo Burti Boubou as a colour-morph of "Laniarius erlangeri" (traditionally considered a subspecies of "L. aethiopicus", but recommended for species status in the same study). If this study is accurate, it would make "L. liberatus" a junior synonym of "L. erlangeri". [Nguembock, B., Fjeldså J., Couloux A., Pasquet, E. 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". Mol. Phyl. Evol. 48(2): 396-407. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2008.04.014 ]

Notes

References

* Database entry includes justification for why this species is critically endangered
* Smith, E.F.G., Arctander, P., Fjeldsa, J. & Amir, O.G. 1991. A new species of shrike (Laniidae: Laniarius) from Somalia, verified by DNA sequence data from the only known individual. Ibis, 133: 227-235.

External links

* [http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/ebas/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=6169&m=0 Birdlife International Factsheet]