Laniarius poensis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The mountain sooty boubou (Laniarius poensis), western boubou or mountain boubou, is a species of bird in the family Malaconotidae. It was formerly considered conspecific with the Albertine sooty boubou (Laniarius holomelas), with Willard's sooty boubou (Laniarius willardi), and with Fülleborn's sooty boubou (Laniarius fuelleborni).
It is found in the Cameroon line from Bioko, Equatorial Guinea north to Mount Oku, Cameroon and the Obudu Plateau, Nigeria. In the Cameroon highlands, it is found in montane forests, usually above 600 m in elevation. On Mount Cameroon, this species can occur at extremely low elevations on the windward slopes near the coast, with records from as low as c. 520 m above sea level. On both Bioko and Mt. Cameroon, this taxon is restricted to montane forests. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Volcanoes National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 2 | Nyungwe National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 3 | Bwindi Impenetrable National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 4 | Virunga National Park | 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Western Boubou sighting in Virunga National Park on a given day, based on 49 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 102nd most-seen of the 316 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March and September
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Western Boubou in Virunga National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April–May and November, the lowest months.
Between 4 and 7 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Western Boubou sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Western Boubou sightings, Virunga National Park ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Volcanoes National Park (Rwanda, about 20%), Nyungwe National Park (Rwanda, about 20%) and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Uganda, about 10%).
Same genus: Laniarius
The closest relatives of the Western Boubou that you can see in Virunga National Park (genus Laniarius, Boubous and Gonoleks) are Black-headed Gonolek (about 40%) and Tropical Boubou (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Western Boubou is recorded against all the birds logged in Virunga National Park (49 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
