Sombre Greenbul Andropadus importunus
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, South Africa

The Sombre Greenbul is a resident breeder in coastal bush, evergreen forest and dry shrub land in eastern Africa from Ethiopia to the Cape in South Africa. Though it’s a common bird, as anyone who’s looked for them will now it does tend to stay hidden in foliage and is more often heard than seen. Indeed it’s the Sombre Greenbul’s call that will usually catch a would-be observers’ attention: a highly vocal species the most typical call is a monotonous, ringing phrase starting with a penetrating single whistle weeeewee, followed by a jumbled chortle and ending off with a rather plaintive, drawn out whistle willy, sometimes charmingly rendered as “WILLIE, quickly run round the bush and squeeeeze-me”.

When it’s not singing the Sombre Greenbul is, as the name suggests, a fairly unremarkable-looking bird - fortunately for birders wondering what on earth they’ve just spotted, the staring white eye is diagnostic and all other similarly-plumaged greenbuls have dark eyes.

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, September

Photographs copyright Charlie Moores