A new species of bush‐shrike is described on the basis of the only known individual. The bird was captured in a disturbed Acacia thicket near the town of Bulo Burti by the Shabeelle River in central Somalia. Believed to represent a species near extinction, the bird was kept alive, studied in captivity and then released. The type material comprises moulted feathers, blood samples and DNA extracted from feather quills. For comparison, DNA from other bush‐shrikes was obtained from old museum skins and three live birds. Comparisons of base sequences from the cyt‐b gene of mitochondrial DNA support the judgement that the bird represents a full species and is not a colour morph or hybrid of examined taxa. This procedure confirms that, in situations where collecting is not desirable, tissue from live individuals can be used to define taxa, and for comparisons with DNA from museum specimens of other taxa.