brubru

A brubru (Nilaus afer)

Borrowed from French brubru, ultimately imitative of the call of the male of the species.[1]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹuːbɹuː/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹubɹu/
• Hyphenation: bru‧bru

brubru (plural brubrus)

1. Also more fully as brubru shrike: a bird in the bushshrike family found in sub-Saharan Africa (Nilaus afer).
   • 1845, “LANIUS”, in Edward Smedley, Hugh James Rose, Henry John Rose, editors, Encyclopædia Metropolitana; or, Universal Dictionary of Knowledge, […], volume XXI, London: B. Fellowes;  […], →OCLC, page 305, column 2:

     L[anius] Capensis, Shaw. le Brubru, Le Vaill.; Brubru Shrike. […] Native of the Cape of Good Hope. From its peculiar note brubru, it derives its trivial name.

   • 1932, The Ibis, a Magazine of General Ornithology, London: N[icholas] Trübner and Co., […], →OCLC, page 688:

     It was in the trees south of Timbuktu that I saw most of the Brubrus, […]

   • 1966, Herbert Friedmann, A Contribution to the Ornithology of Uganda: Scientific Results of the 1963 Knudsen-Machris Expedition to Kenya and Uganda, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, →OCLC, page 43, column 2:

     A pair of adult brubrus taken at Moroto, Uganda, 3,500 feet, on May 15, are referrable to the nominate race, although they are not wholly typical of it.

   • 1989, Tom Heaton, In Teleki’s Footsteps: An East African Journey, London: Macmillan, →ISBN, page 75:

     I distinguished the rasping whistles of bru-brus, the clarion choruses of red and yellow barbets, the feverish chattering of superb starlings and the harsh squawks of white-headed buffalo weavers.

   • 2014, Adam Scott Kennedy, “Shrikes – Brubru, Taita Fiscal and Magpie Shrike”, in Birds of the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Wild Guides), Princeton, N.J., Woodstock, Oxfordshire: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 170:

     This bird of dry scrub could be confused with a variety of other similar-looking species, including the tchagras […], but the Brubru is short-tailed and very white in the face and breast. […] The song is a distinctive rolling trill, "prrrrrrrp-prrrrrrrrp", not dissimilar to an old telephone ringing, which is far-carrying.

   • 2015, David Fletcher, chapter 16, in The Country-cides of Namibia and Botswana (Brian’s World), Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Matador, →ISBN:

     They also saw some tasty representatives of the local avian wildlife in the form of bru-brus, crombecs, tawny eagles and marico flycatchers.

• boubou (“bird in the bushshrike family of the genus Laniarius”)

Wikispecies

• brubru on Wikipedia.Wikipedia