Scrub Warbler
Scotocerca inquieta
A tiny desert passerine that is active, bold, and noisy. Overall pale sandy-gray. Middle Eastern populations are grayer and have a more prominent facial pattern than North African populations. Favors desert wadis but also bush-strewn desert plains. Hops on the ground or in bushes with its long black-tipped tail spread and cocked up. Moves around in pairs or small groups, uttering noisy trills and a bi-syllabilic melancholic whistled “see-suu…” Similar to Graceful Prinia, but favors more arid habitats.
Identification
The streaked scrub warbler is a small, skulking desert warbler which cocks its tail over its back. The adults are grey brown above, finely streaked with dark brown. They have a broad pale supercilium and a thin black eyestripe. The underparts are whitish with reddish flanks and vent, the breast is finely streaked. The tail is graduated and dark brown with a white tip. Juveniles are duller.<p>The song of the streaked scrub warbler is distinctive and is rendered as "zit-zit dweedle-doolredle-doleed"
Taxonomy
The streaked scrub warbler was formally described and illustrated in 1830 by the German physician Philipp Jakob Cretzschmar under the binomial name Malurus inquietus. This species is now the only bird placed in the genus Scotocerca that was introduced in 1872 by the Swedish zoologist Carl Jakob Sundevall with the streaked scrub warbler as the type species. The genus name Scotocerca combines the Ancient Greek skotos meaning "dark" or "darkness" (from skotoō "to darken") with kerkos meaning "tail". The specific inquieta is from Latin inquietus meaning "restless". The genus is placed in its own family Scotocercidae that was introduced in 2012 by Silke Fregin and collaborators.<p>The streaked scrub warbler was formerly sometimes placed in the family Cisticolidae. David Winkler and colleagues include this species in an enlarged family Scotocercidae that includes the families Cettiidae and Erythrocercidae.<p>Eight subspecies are recognised:<p>Some authorities split the streaked scrub warbler into two species, the Saharan scrub warbler (Scotocerca saharae, including subspecies theresae) and the Levant scrub warbler (Scotocerca inquieta, including all other subspecies), an approach which has been followed in the most recent version of the Collins Bird Guide.
- Scientific name
- Scotocerca inquieta
- Authority
- (Cretzschmar, 1830)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Cettiidae
- Genus
- Scotocerca
Range and habitat
The streaked scrub warbler is a bird of open desert with a sparse cover of scrub, especially wadi beds with a denser cover than the surrounding desert, as well as scree areas with bushes in ravines and gorges.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Rufous-winged Sparrow
Peucaea carpalis
Subtly marked sparrow with a poor name; "rufous wing" is restricted to a tiny, barely visible patch on the shoulder. Gray head and neck with peaked rufous crown and rufous eyeline. Stout pink bill. Sides are buff and unstreaked on adults. Back and wings are also buffy with fine markings. Paler throat is edged with thin dark lines. Primarily a Mexican species with very limited range in the U.S.; found in pairs or small flocks in brushy grasslands. Variable song usually composed of a few clear tinkling notes and trills.
Southern Crested Guineafowl
Guttera edouardi
A large-bodied, small-headed, black gamebird perfectly lined with rows of hundreds of bluish-white spots. It has a ridiculous-looking plumed “toupee” above the naked face, which features an ivory-colored bill and a blood-red eye. The facial skin color varies geographically, and can be mostly blue-gray with small patches of red and white, or predominantly blue-gray with a large white patch on the back of the neck. A broad band around the base of the neck is unspotted black. It prefers forest and thickets, where it forages on the ground for berries, seeds, and other plant matter. The similar Helmeted Guineafowl differs by its lack of feathered crest and its having a bone-like casque on top of the head instead. The alarm call is a series of rattling, agitated notes that speed up and slow down; similar to the call of Helmeted Guineafowl, but with a tinnier quality.
Blue-banded Pitta
Erythropitta arquata
Unique-looking pitta of hill and submontane forests. Note bright red underparts, dull tan-orange face, dull blue-green back, and glittering silver-blue “necklace” and secondaries (similarly-colored line trailing down from behind the eye can be visible if seen well). Favors patches of forest with some disturbance, especially bamboo groves and fallen trees. Shy and elusive. Gives a whistle with a clipped ending; higher and more “fluty” than that of Black-crowned Pitta, and lacks the rising quality of that species’ and Garnet Pitta’s whistles.
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