Yellow-crowned Gonolek

Yellow-crowned Gonolek

Laniarius barbarus

Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability ~20% · Possible
at Maiduguri

In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%

33 Verified sightings at Maiduguri
345 In 1 park From 2019 to 2026
January Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Yellow-crowned Gonolek

The yellow-crowned gonolek (Laniarius barbarus), also known as the common gonolek, is a medium-sized passerine bird in the bushshrike family. It is a common resident breeding bird in equatorial Africa from Senegal and Democratic Republic of Congo east to Ethiopia. It is a skulking bird and frequents dense undergrowth in forests and other wooded habitats. The nest is a cup structure in a bush or tree in which two eggs are laid.

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the yellow-crowned gonolek in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Senegal. He used the French name La pie-griesche rouge du Sénégal and the Latin Lanius Senegalensis ruber. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the yellow-crowned gonolek. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Lanius barbarus and cited Brisson's work. The... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Song0:13

Gambia · 2024

© Zsombor Károlyi · XC1163394 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Duet1:25

Gambia · 2025

© Romuald Mikusek · XC1041810 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Begging call0:33

Burkina Faso · 2025

© Marc Languy · XC1025786 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Niokolo-Koba National Park 🇸🇳 Senegal
~70%

More parks will be added in future updates.

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Ouagadougou 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso
~80%
2 Accra 🇬🇭 Ghana
~30%
3 Serrekunda 🇬🇲 Gambia
~30%
4 Maiduguri 🇳🇬 Nigeria
~20%
5 Abuja 🇳🇬 Nigeria
~20%
6 Lagos 🇳🇬 Nigeria
~10%
7 Dakar 🇸🇳 Senegal
~10%

Zoos & Centres Where Found

# Zoo / Centre Country
1 Berlin Zoological Garden 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity
2 Aquarium Berlin 🇩🇪 Germany In captivity

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Yellow-crowned Gonolek in Maiduguri?

Possible

About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-crowned Gonolek sighting in Maiduguri on a given day, based on 33 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 41st most-seen of the 65 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Yellow-crowned Gonolek in Maiduguri?

January

In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-crowned Gonolek in Maiduguri on a given day, against about 10% in February–March, May, August–October and December, the lowest months. That is one of Maiduguri's driest months, with almost no rain against 180 mm in August. November has too few records to rate.

What time of day is best to see a Yellow-crowned Gonolek?

Between 8 and 11 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-crowned Gonolek sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Is Maiduguri the best place to see a Yellow-crowned Gonolek?

4th of 7

Of the 7 cities where we can rate Yellow-crowned Gonolek sightings, Maiduguri ranks 4th at about 20%. The best odds are in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso, about 80%), Accra (Ghana, about 30%) and Serrekunda (Gambia, about 30%).

Where does the Yellow-crowned Gonolek sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Yellow-crowned Gonolek is recorded against all the birds logged in Maiduguri (33 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.

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