Dodson's Bulbul (Pycnonotus dodsoni) is named after Edward Dodson, a British explorer who worked as a taxidermist and collector on scientific expeditions to East Africa and Arabia, during which the type specimen of this bird (or its subspecies, as it was sometimes classified as a subspecies of the Common Bulbul) was likely collected. The species name dodsoni was coined by the British zoologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe in 1895. Dodson's brother, William Dodson, also a collector, is commemorated in the name of a subspecies of the Spotted Thick-knee (Burhinus capensis dodsoni). Dodson's bulbul is often considered a subspecies of the widespread Common Bulbul (P. barbatus), but differs by lacking the white ear-patch of some relatives, having distinct brownish upperparts and breast spotting (rather than blackish), and crucially, possessing bright yellow undertail coverts and white tail tips, key identifiers in its East African range – north-eastern Africa, specifically across Somalia, south-eastern Ethiopia, and into east-central Kenya.
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