Orange-breasted Bushshrike

Chlorophoneus sulfureopectus

As they are shy and retiring birds, much more often heard than seen as they move around in the upper stories of tall trees looking for insect prey, any encounter with the Orange-breasted Bushshrike is a special treat. It is a bird of savanna and woodland thickets and forest margins, often near or along rivers and streams. It is one of the smaller members of the family, measuring only 19cm in length and weighing around 27g. These lovely birds usually move around in monogamous pairs. They build shallow cup-shaped stick nests in trees during the breeding season which stretches from spring to late summer.

The Orange-breasted Bushshrike is widely distributed across sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal in West Africa to here in South Africa, where they are to be found from the Eastern Cape, through Kwazulu-Natal, to Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the North West Province. The IUCN considers this species to be of least concern.

38 thoughts on “Orange-breasted Bushshrike

Please don't leave without sharing your thoughts?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.