Gray-breasted Prinia
Prinia hodgsonii
A small, relatively short-tailed prinia with a fine black bill. Usually found in scrub forests and undergrowth along forest edges and forest clearings. Breeding birds have a distinctive gray breast band, gray upperparts, and no eyebrow. Nonbreeding birds lack a complete breast band and have a short eyebrow. An active bird that often occurs in flocks. It makes a wide variety of sounds including buzzy songs which it sings from high, exposed perches. Nonbreeding birds are similar to Rufescent Prinia, but Gray-breasted Prinias have a shorter eyebrow, more contrast between the pale throat and darker chest, and a different call.
Identification
These 11-to-13-centimetre (4 to 5 in) long warblers have a longish grey tail with graduated feathers that are tipped in white, they have strong pinkish legs and a short black bill. The eye ring is orange. The sexes look alike in most populations except in P .h. pectoralis of Sri Lanka where the female can be told apart by the incomplete breast band. The underparts are buff white and the grey breast band contrasts with the white throat in the breeding season. They have a rufous wing panel and the upperparts are smoky grey during the breeding season and olive brown in the non-breeding period. Non-breeding birds have a short indistinct white supercilium and often lack the breast band. Young birds are like non-breeding adults but more rufous above. The distinctive greyer endemic race in Sri Lanka, P. h. pectoralis, retains the summer-type plumage all year round. Young birds have a pale lower mandible. The tail feathers are shorter in summer than in the non-breeding winter plumage.
Taxonomy
This species was named by James Franklin as Prinia gracilis in 1831 based on a specimen that he obtained on the Ganges between Calcutta and Benares. It was renamed as Prinia hodgsonii by Edward Blyth in 1844 since the name Sylvia gracilis had been in use for the graceful prinia (described earlier in 1823 by Martin Lichtenstein) clashed when treated in the same genus Prinia. It was also described as Prinia adamsi by Jerdon and as Prinia humilis by Hume. This was placed in a separate genus Franklinia by Blyth and this treatment was followed by Jerdon and by others including Hugh Whistler who separated this species from the genus Prinia and placed it in the genus Franklinia which he considered distinct on the basis of having twelve tail feathers rather than ten and in having distinct breeding and non-breeding plumages. The merging of Prinia and Franklinia was supported by H. G. Deignan. The species has a widespread distribution and populations that show distinct plumages have been described as subspecies:
- Scientific name
- Prinia hodgsonii
- Authority
- Blyth, 1844
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Cisticolidae
- Genus
- Prinia
Range and habitat
This skulking passerine bird is typically found in open woodland, scrub jungle, bushes and hedgerows amidst cultivation. Also found in bamboo jungle, mangrove swamps and reeds. P. h. rufula has been observed in patches of sugarcane near Kathmandu valley.<p>It is a common resident of the Indian peninsula. It migrates slightly south during winter. The distribution extends from Himalayan foothills to Southern India and to eastern Indian states Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya and Assam. The species distribution extends to Pakistan, Burma, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Yunnan province in southern China. Its altitude ranges from plains and goes up to 1000 meters (3280 ft) P. h. hodgsonii and up to 1800 meters (5900 ft) P. h. rufula in Meghalaya.
- Migration
- Vertical migration
Behavior
Like most warblers, grey-breasted prinias are insectivorous. They feeds mainly on insects like ants, small beetles, caterpillars which are found among twigs and foliage of small trees. They also feeds on nectar from blossoms of trees like Erythrina and Bombax and during summer their forehead is sometimes sprinkled with pollen giving them an orange or yellowish head that can lead to mistaken identification.<p>Usually found in pairs or small groups, they sometimes forms parties of five or more (up to twenty) individuals. It jerks its tail as it flits between branches.<p>The breeding season begins with the rains. The male sings from a high perch and also performs aerobatic manoeuvers with rising and falling before diving with song notes. The song is a squeaky series of calls: chiwee-chiwee-chiwi-chip-chip-chip (or yousee-yousee-yousee-which-which-which-which). The nest is a cup of grass placed between leaves that are sewn together with cobwebs and resembles the nest of a common tailorbird but tends to be placed closer to the ground. The typical clutch consists of three or four eggs. The eggs vary in colour and they include glossy blue, pinkish white, greenish-blue or even pure white. They usually have reddish brown speckles at the broad end. Both parents incubate the eggs which hatch after about ten to eleven days. More than one brood may be raised in a season.
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Lemon-rumped Warbler
Phylloscopus chloronotus
Small leaf warbler with many extremely similar relatives. Like other “Pallas’s-type” leaf warblers, has olive-yellow upperparts, pale underparts, prominent brow and crown stripes, double wingbars, and a pale rump. Unlike Ashy-throated and Buff-barred Warblers, lacks any white on outer tail edges. Pallas’s averages yellower-headed and brighter overall. Gansu and Chinese Leaf Warblers can be incredibly similar, but Lemon-rumped averages whiter-browed and yellower-bellied than the former, more contrastingly-marked on the head than the latter, and darker-billed than both. As with many other physically similar leaf warblers, best distinguished by voice and habitat. Breeds in coniferous and mixed forests at mid- to high-elevation forests, though may descend into foothills in the winter. Two song types are both highly distinctive; one is a buzzy, descending rattling trill and the other is a series of high-pitched clicking twitters. Call is a loud, strident pair of notes: “pse-tew!”
Montane Double-collared Sunbird
Cinnyris ludovicensis
A medium-sized typical ‘double-collared’ sunbird with a long bill. Male has a very broad red breast band, bluish-violet rump patch, and a dusky belly. Female is dull gray-brown. Pairs and singles are common but extremely local in highland forests and thicket edges, restricted to distinct regions that perhaps represent three separate species: the Angolan scarp; Nyika Plateau of Malawi; and the Eastern Arc, Tanzania. Larger, with a broader red breast band on the male, than either Eastern Miombo or Forest Double-collared sunbirds; the latter also has an olive (not dusky) belly. Has a typical jumbled sunbird song.
Black Bishop
Euplectes gierowii
A large bishop in which breeding males are scarlet and black, and females and non-breeding males are brown and streaky. There is geographic variation in the amount of red on the back of males, although the rump is always black. Found in lush grassland, cultivated areas, and savanna. Breeding male similar to Black-winged Bishop, but separated by larger size, black rump, and black crown. Females and non-breeding males can be confused with a variety of other bishops and widowbirds, but can be tentatively identified by their very dark overall coloration, heavily streaked back and breast, and large size. The song is a series of dry buzzy notes.
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