| Laniarius | |
|---|---|
 Yellow-crowned Gonolek (Laniarius barbarus) | |
| Scientific Classification | |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Aves |
| Order | Passeriformes |
| Family | Malaconotidae |
| Genus | Laniarius |
Laniarius or boubous or gonoleks, is a genus of brightly colored, carnivorous bushshrikes. Not to be confused with the similar-sounding genus Lanius, they were formerly classed with the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, but they and related genera are now considered sufficiently distinctive to be separated from that group as the bush-shrike family Malaconotidae.
This is an African group of species which are found in scrub or open woodland. They are similar in habits to shrikes, hunting insects and other small prey from a perch on a bush. Although similar in build to the shrikes, these tend to be either colorful species or largely black. Some species are also quite secretive.
The closest relatives of the genus appear to be the genus Chlorophoneus. Previously, members of the genus Laniarius had been classified on the basis of plumage. However, a 2008 molecular study found that the species had developed different colors and patterns in plumage independently and similar-colored species were often unrelated. The authors hypothesized that the ancestor of the genus may have been dark-colored.
Species[]
Tropical Boubou (Gmelin, 1788) (Laniarius aethiopicus) Ethiopian Boubou (Laniarius (aethiopicus) aethiopicus) Tropical Boubou (Laniarius (aethiopicus) major) East Coast Boubou (Laniarius (aethiopicus) sublacteus) Gabela Bushshrike (Moltoni, 1923) (Laniarius amboimensis) Crimson-breasted Shrike (Burchell, 1822) (Laniarius atrococcineus) Yellow-breasted Boubou (Shelley, 1887) (Laniarius atroflavus) Yellow-crowned Gonolek (Linnaeus, 1766) (Laniarius barbarus) Swamp Boubou (Verreaux, 1857) (Laniarius bicolor) Braun's Bushshrike (Bannerman, 1939) (Laniarius brauni) Black-headed Gonolek (Cretzschmar, 1829) (Laniarius erythrogaster) Somali Boubou (Reichenow, 1905) (Laniarius erlangeri) Southern Boubou (Gmelin, 1788) (Laniarius ferrugineus) Fülleborn's Boubou (Reichenow, 1900) (Laniarius fuelleborni) Slate-colored Boubou (Hartlaub, 1863) (Laniarius funebris) Lowland Sooty Boubou (Hartlaub, 1848) (Laniarius leucorhynchus) Lühder's Bushshrike (Reichenow, 1874) (Laniarius luehderi) Papyrus Gonolek (Ogilvie-Grant, 1911) (Laniarius mufumbiri) Mountain Sooty Boubou (Alexander, 1903) (Laniarius poensis) Red-naped Bushshrike (Shelley, 1885) (Laniarius ruficeps) Turati's Boubou (Verreaux, 1858) (Laniarius turatii) Willard's Sooty Boubou (Voelker, Outlaw, Reddy, Tobler & Bates, 2010) (Laniarius willardi)