60. Black-backed Puffback Here’s yet another black and white shrike-like bird: the Black-backed Puffback. Notice the rather minimalistic hook to its bill, but also its fiery red eye. Just to make things difficult, this bird has in its repertoire a call which sounds like another duet – a clicking tic followed immediately by a drawn-out wheu – but isn’t (for a long time I thought it was). It is called a ‘puffback’ because, when it is displaying, it puffs up in a rather dramatic way the loose white feathers of its rump and lower back. Its species name cubla, given to it by Francois Levaillant, an early 19th century naturalist and ornithologist, is derived from a local Southern African name. What’s more, we are told, the initial letter ‘c’ represents one of the click sounds characteristic of languages such as isiZulu, isiXhosa, and isiNdebele. This makes sense, given the click (tic!) at the beginning of its call, and enables one to think rather fondly of Mr Levaillant. Was it that the people heard the bird speaking in their own language? In any case, out of respect for this smart little bird, we should, I think, make an effort to pronounce it (something like) tsubla. Birds of AFRICAMA House 124 Birds of AFRICAMA House 125