Rosy-patched bushshrike

Rosy-patched bushshrike
Male in Tarangire, Tanzania
Song recorded in Kiboko, Kenya
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Malaconotidae
Genus:	Rhodophoneus von Heuglin, 1871
Species:	R. cruentus
Binomial name
Rhodophoneus cruentus (Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1828)
Synonyms
Telophorus cruentus Lanius cruentus (protonym)

The rosy-patched bushshrike (Rhodophoneus cruentus) is a species of bird in the family Malaconotidae. It is the only species placed in the genus Rhodophoneus. It is found in Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Tanzania. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.

Taxonomy

The rosy-patched bushshrike was formally described in 1828 as Lanius cruentus by the German naturalists Wilhelm Hemprich and Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg based on specimens collected at Arkiko near Massawa in Eritrea. ^{[2] [3]} The specific epithet is Latin meaning "bloody" or "stained with blood". ^[4] It is now the only species placed in the genus Rhodophoneus which was introduced in 1871 by the German explorer and ornithologist Theodor von Heuglin to accommodate a single species, the rosy-patched bushshrike. ^{[5] [6] [7]} The genus name combines the Ancient Greek ῥοδον/rhodon meaning "rose" with φονευς/phoneus meaning "murderer". ^[8]

Four subspecies are recognised: ^[7]

• R. c. kordofanicus Sclater, WL & Mackworth-Praed, CW, 1918 – west-central Sudan
• R. c. cruentus (Hemprich, WF & Ehrenberg, CG, 1828) – northeastern Sudan, Eritrea, and northern Ethiopia
• R. c. hilgerti (Neumann, OR, 1903) – far southeastern South Sudan, southern and eastern Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, and northern and eastern Kenya
• R. c. cathemagmenus (Reichenow, A, 1887) – southern Kenya (Tsavo and Lake Victoria) to northeastern Tanzania

Gallery

• 
  Rosy-patched shrike (female) specimen
  Nairobi National Museum
• 
  Rosy-patched shrike from Tsavo National Park, Kenya, August 2016

References

1. BirdLife International (2016). "Rhodophoneus cruentus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016 e.T22707623A94132340. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22707623A94132340.en . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
2. Hemprich, Wilhelm; Ehrenberg, Christian Gottfried (1828). Symbolae physicae (in Latin). Vol. 1: Avium Part 1. Berolini [Berlin]: Ex Officina Academica. Pages are not numbered. Plate 3 and Text. For the publication date see: Dickinson, E.C.; Overstreet, L.K.; Dowsett, R.J.; Bruce, M.D. (2011). Priority! The Dating of Scientific Names in Ornithology: a Directory to the literature and its reviewers. Northampton, UK: Aves Press. pp. 91–92. ISBN   978-0-9568611-1-5.
3. Mayr, Ernst; Greenway, James C. Jr, eds. (1960). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 9. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 326.
4. Jobling, James A. "cruentus". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 16 November 2025.
5. von Heuglin, Theodor (1869). Ornithologie Nordost-Afrika's : der Nilquellen- und Küsten Gebiete des Rothen Meeres und des nördlichen Somal-Landes (in German). Vol. 1, Part 2. Cassel [Kassel], Germany: T. Fischer. p. 147.
6. Mayr, Ernst; Greenway, James C. Jr, eds. (1960). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 9. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 320.
7. AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". doi: 10.2173/avilist.v2025 . Retrieved 16 November 2025.
8. Jobling, James A. "Rhodophoneus". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 16 November 2025.