Its weight can vary between about 38-70 g, but typically adults weigh between 50 and 60 g. Females are on average a bit smaller than males, but individual variation is so large that for most practical purposes the sexes seem to be of identical size.

[3] Nestlings have pinkish-brown skin and are nude after hatching, later growing sparse down; they apparently have spots inside their bills which they show their parents to get fed.

Fledglings are similar to adults but duller, with the brownish head and the upper parts appearing mottled due to yellowish-ochre to tawny feather tips, forming a barring on the lower back and rump.

Southeastern birds (mossambicus and especially limpopoensis) resemble the southern boubou (L. ferrugineus) but are black above instead of dark brown and grey – though this may be hard to see at a distance and entirely indistinguishable in the occasionally seen hybrid.

Like many bush-shrikes, it has a wide vocal repertoire that includes duets in which two individuals – a male-female pair or two males with adjacent territories – give notes alternately in so rapid a sequence that they sound like one bird.

Examples of typical duet sequences include hoooooo-ho-ho, hoho-u-ho, hoo-hii-hoo, haw-Weeer-haw, hoou-Weer-hoou, houhou-Weeer and bobobobo-Weeer.

Among southern birds, grating Weeer and krzzzz calls, snoring Haaw croaks and rattling Ke-Ke-Ke are more common.

Contrary to what one might expect in a purely phenetic analysis, the conspicuous variation of wing stripes is no good indicator of relationships among these and related boubous.

Vocalizations and habitat preferences, on the other hand, allow a good delimitation of the clades conventionally grouped as tropical boubou.

It also does not seem to occur in northern Somalia, eastern Ethiopia and Kenya, and central Tanzania as well as the lower Ruvuma River basin.

It requires dense ground cover, and is found in a variety of forest and forest-edge habitats, including savannah, Miombo woodland and village gardens.

In the drier parts of its range, it is generally restricted to riparian forest, though the black boubou also utilizes semiarid shrubland.

Typical vegetation in its habitat is characterized by such plants as African juniper (Juniperus procera), bracken (Pteridium), Rosoideae shrubs or Brachystegia.

They rarely fly long distances and tend to skulk in the shrubs and low in trees like a coucal (Centropus), or move on the ground interrupted by bouts of watching where they stand alert, with the tail slightly raised.

When alarmed, they will make a slow descending flight, flashing their white rump patches and giving warning calls, before taking cover.

[6] The tropical boubou may be common locally, with 100 individuals per square kilometer; in other places only one-third this population density is recorded however.

It makes gliding or descending display flights with the white rump spots exposed and producing mechanical noises with its remiges.

The courtship climaxes with the male – wings drooped, tail fanned and rump feathers puffed up – giving repeated metallic or whistling calls.

It consists of twigs, tendrils, small roots and the occasional grass leaf or bark piece, held together with spider web and sometimes lined with finer fibres; the walls are thick – more than one to more than 5 cm – but loosely constructed and the eggs can often be seen from the outside.

Nesting sites are often solitary bushes, which provide cover while allowing the incubating bird to observe the surrounding terrain for threats.

When tropical boubous spot black cuckoos, they usually try to mob them away and are often successful in this; some pairs, however, seem to be very inept at preventing brood parasitism and may be affected several times per year.