White-spectacled Warbler
Phylloscopus intermedius
Medium-sized warbler with prominent pale “spectacles.” Extent of gray crown coloration is geographically variable; Himalayan birds average the darkest and Chinese birds the palest. Himalayan and Vietnamese birds’ dark gray crowns may recall Gray-cheeked Warbler, but both forms of White-spectacled Warbler have a much more contrasting crown pattern and bright yellow throats. White-spectacled’s eye-ring is broken at the top instead of at the back as it is in Golden-spectacled and Gray-crowned Warblers. Forages at lower levels of the forest, often making sallies after mobile prey. Breeds at medium altitudes in broadleaf hill and montane forest, with Chinese and Himalayan birds moving to lower altitudes in the non-breeding season. Song is distinctly broken and hesitant, slowly picking up as it progresses and ending with a variable trill; contains more trilling than Gray-cheeked Warbler’s song. Lower in pitch and more faltering, less accelerating, than the songs of Gray-crowned and Martens’s Warblers. Presence of any trilling components at all distinguishes this species from Bianchi’s Warbler.
Identification
The white-spectacled warbler (Phylloscopus intermedius) is a species of leaf warbler in the family Phylloscopidae. It is found in Asia from the eastern Himalayas to south-eastern China and southern Vietnam. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. It was formerly included in the Old World warbler family, Sylviidae. The white-spectacled warbler was described by the English entomologist and ornithologist Frederic Moore in 1854 and given the binomial name Abrornis affinis. In 1898 the Irish ornithologist John David Digues La Touche described another bird to which he gave the binomial name Cryptolopha intermedia. These two taxa were subsequently considered to belong to the same species and were placed in the genus Seicercus. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2018 found that neither Seicercus nor the closely related genus Phylloscopus were monophyletic. In the subsequent reorganization the two genera were merged into Phylloscopus which had priority under the rules of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). Before the merger, the nominate subspecies was Seicercus affinis affinis (Moore, F., 1854) but within the enlarged genus the name affinis was occupied by Tickell's leaf warbler Phylloscopus affinis (Tickell, 1833) which had priority. A new name zosterops was introduced to replace affinis, but under the rules of the ICZN the subspecies intermedius now had priority and became the nominate form. Three subspecies are recognised: P. i. zosterops Elliott & del Hoyo, 2016 – east Himalayas to south China, north Laos and central Vietnam P. i. intermedius (La Touche, 1898) – central and southeast China P. i. ocularis (Robinson & Kloss, 1919) – south Vietnam
Taxonomy
Genus: Phylloscopus; Family: Phylloscopidae; Order: Passeriformes.
- Scientific name
- Phylloscopus intermedius
- Authority
- (La Touche, 1898)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Phylloscopidae
- Genus
- Phylloscopus
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Vertical migration
Behavior
Migration pattern: Vertical migration.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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