A common resident which is seldom seen, but often heard.
Found from Cape Town along the Southern Cape Coast along the KZN East Coast and across the whole of Mozambique. They like forests, coastal and riverine bush and dense thickets, where they are usually found solitary or in pairs.
These greenbuls keep to dense foliage and are easily overlooked and hard to see unless calling. They forage mostly in the upper branches of trees and sometimes also in undergrowth and on the ground in leaf litter. Insects, fruit and small snails are their favourite food.
They are usually highly vocal, sometimes from the top of the trees. The call being a penetrating ringing call note, ‘willie willie, willie’ with a plaintive drawn out whistle to end, hence its Afrikaans name, die gewone willie.
The breeding season is October to April. They build a nest one to four metres above ground in the fork of a sapling or bush. The shape is a thin shallow cup of twigs, rootlets and tendrils, lined with fine grass and hairlike plant fibres. Usually two dull white or cream eggs with green or grey scrolls are laid. The incubation is 15 to 17 days and they are nestlings for 14 to 16 days.
The tribal name is inkwili.
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