Yellow-browed Warbler
Phylloscopus inornatus
Small, active warbler with greenish upperparts, white underparts, distinct pale yellowish eyebrow, and distinct pale wingbars (upper wingbar short and less distinct). Overlaps in range with many other warbler species; compare especially with Hume’s Warbler, Pallas’s Leaf Warbler, and Two-barred Warbler. Breeds in mid- to high-elevation forests and winters in a wide range of wooded and scrubby habitats, where usually rather active; sometimes hovers to pick bugs from leaf tips. Call a distinctive, 2-syllable, upslurred "tsu-weet." Song is a very high, thin series of alternating long and short notes: “tseee-ts’a’wi-tseeeee.”
Identification
This is one of the smaller Old World warblers, at 9.5–11 cm long and weighing 4–9 g distinctly smaller than a chiffchaff but slightly larger than Pallas's leaf warbler. Like many other leaf warblers, it has overall greenish upperparts and white underparts. It also has prominent double wing bars formed by yellowish-white tips to the wing covert feathers (a long bar on the greater coverts and a short bar on the median coverts), yellow-margined tertial feathers, and long yellow supercilium. Some individuals also have a faint paler green central crown stripe though many do not show this.<p>It is not shy, but its arboreal life style makes it difficult to observe. It is almost constantly in motion. Its song is a high-pitched medley of whistles; the call is piercing, often disyllabic "tseeweest", strikingly loud for the bird's small size. The only real possibility of confusion is with the similar-looking Hume's leaf warbler (P. humei), which in the limited area of overlap has duller colours, a faint second wing bar and dark legs and lower mandible. Their songs and calls are clearly distinct, with Hume's having a more chirping "chwee" call. It can easily be distinguished from Pallas's warbler as it does not have the conspicuous yellow central crown stripe and rump patch shown by that species.
Taxonomy
The yellow-browed warbler was first described by the English zoologist Edward Blyth in 1842 and given the binomial name Regulus inornatus. The current genus name Phylloscopus is from Ancient Greek phullon, "leaf", and skopos, "seeker" (from skopeo, "to watch"). The specific inornatus is Latin for "plain".
- Scientific name
- Phylloscopus inornatus
- Authority
- (Blyth, 1842)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Phylloscopidae
- Genus
- Phylloscopus
Range and habitat
- Breeding range
- PAL : c Russia and n Kazakhstan to e Russia, ne China and North Korea
- Non-breeding range
- se Asia to Sumatra
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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