Ghana Cuckooshrike Lobotos lobatus Scientific name definitions

19–21 cm; 29–37 g. Male has glossy blue-black head, nape and throat, large orange gape wattles, narrow yellow collar; olive-yellow upperparts becoming orange-chestnut on rump; alula and flight-feathers black, yellow edges of secondaries and tertials; black tail with green centre and yellow corners; orange-chestnut breast, shading to yellow on undertail-coverts; yellow underwing; iris dark brown to red-brown; bill and legs black. Differs from L. oriolinus in having orange-chestnut rump, deeper orange-yellow underparts. Female is duller, with no gloss on head, no yellow collar, olive-green upperparts, underparts entirely yellow, gape wattles smaller; virtually indistinguishable from female L. oriolinus. Juvenile is similar to female, but upperparts and underparts with slight dark barring, flight-feathers and greater upperwing-coverts tipped white, tail feathers narrower and more pointed than adult; immature not fully described.

E Sierra Leone and SE Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast and SW Ghana.

Upper guinean forest zone, in canopy of primary forest or tall lowland rainforest, often near rivers, and in open swamp-forest. Also recorded in logged, disturbed and managed forest; also in Terminalia ivorensis plantations in Ivory Coast.

None recorded.

Diet includes caterpillars (Lepidoptera), grasshoppers (Orthoptera), mantids (Mantodea) and seeds. Generally perches in dense, high foliage, typically 20–50 m above the ground. Often joins mixed-species parties.

Mainly silent and inconspicuous, with “zit” or “tsik” flight call.

Birds in breeding condition in Feb and Aug–Nov in Liberia. No other information.

VULNERABLE. Restricted-range species: present in Upper Guinea Forests EBA. Local, and generally rare to uncommon. Although this species has apparently adapted to secondary and disturbed forest habitats, and is known to breed in mature logged forest, it must be seriously threatened by massive forest destruction throughout its restricted and fragmented range of 300,000 km². Population may be declining rapidly: surveys at Gola Forest, in Sierra Leone, in 1988–1989 indicate a serious decline and occurrence at very low densities. In Liberia, where forests under intense and increasing pressure from commercial logging, settlement and smallholder agriculture, it is locally rare to uncommon, with estimated minimum of 20,000 pairs in 1997. In Ivory Coast, sightings in Taï Forest National Park, one of the largest and best-preserved areas of upper guinean forest, suggest that it is secure there. Very few 20th-century records from Ghana. Unconfirmed 1988 report from SE Nigeria (Ikpan) probably refers to L. oriolinus.