White-billed Buffalo-Weaver

SCI Name:  Bubalornis albirostris
Protonym:  Coccothraustes albirostris Nouv.Dict.Hist.Nat. 13 p.535
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Ploceidae / Bubalornis
Taxonomy Code:  wbbwea1
Type Locality:  Africa. Restricted to Senegal by Hartert, 1907, Novit. ZooL, 14, p. 485.
Author:  Vieillot
Publish Year:  1817
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

BUBALORNIS
(Ploceidae; Ϯ Red-billed Buffalo Weaver B. niger) Gr. βουβαλος boubalos  buffalo; ορνις ornis, ορνιθος ornithos  bird; "Genus BUBALORNIS.  Bill elongated, pointed, slightly compressed towards the point; culmen arched and entering between the feathers of the forehead; nostrils basal subcyclindrical and open; rictus slightly bristled; wings rounded, third fourth and fifth quills equal; tail moderate, rounded; tarsi and acrotarsia divided, the divisions of latter in part obsolete; outer and inner toes equal; claws short, slightly curved, and blunt.   Bubalornis niger.  Shining black; flanks and sides of breast slightly variegated with white; inner vanes of quills white towards their bases, and the outer vanes of several broadly edged with the same colour; bill red.  Length 8 inches.  Inhabits the country about Kurrichaine, and is generally found accompanying herds of Buffaloes." (A. Smith 1836); "Bubalornis A. Smith, 1836, Rep. Exped. Centr. Africa, p. 51. Type, by monotypy, B. niger A. Smith." (Moreau in Peters, 1962, XV, p. 3).
Synon. Alecto, Alectornis, Dertroides, Textor.

albirostris
L. albus  white; -rostris  -billed  < rostrum  beak.
● ex “Calao à Bec Blanc” of Levaillant 1801 (Anthracoceros).
● ex “Yapú negro y amarillo” of de Azara 1802-1805, no. 59 (syn. Cacicus chrysopterus).
● ex “White-billed Jacamar” of Latham 1787 (Galbula).
● ex “Carpintero lomo blanco” of de Azara 1802-1805, no. 249 (subsp. Phloeoceastes melanoleucos).
● ex “Tangara pourpré de Cayenne” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 128, fig. 1 (syn. Ramphocelus carbo).