Karoo Prinia
Prinia maculosa
An active warbler with a long graduated tail that is sometimes cocked. It is dull brown above and pale below with extensive streaks and blotches on the underparts that often extend to the throat and belly. Pairs frequent fynbos, strandveld, Karoo shrublands, and gardens, where they are active gleaners of insects, occasionally hopping on the ground. The typical song is a reedy piping “kli” note repeated 4-15 times, with scratchy buzzing notes interspersed. The similar Drakensberg Prinia differs from the Karoo Prinia by having warmer upperparts, yellower underparts, and finer streaks that are mostly restricted to the chest.
Identification
The Karoo prinia is 13–15 cm (5.1–5.9 in) long, with short rounded wings, a longish tail, strong legs and a short straight black bill. The head has a whitish eyebrow and the upperparts are otherwise brown. The throat and lower face are whitish with dark streaking and the rest of the underparts are yellowish white or yellow with distinct black streaking. The long tail has a dark spot near the end and is typically cocked up at an angle. The feet and legs are pinkish-brown, and the eye is dark brown. The sexes are identical, but juveniles are much yellower below than the adults and less heavily streaked.<p>The calls of this species include a sharp chleet-chleet-chleet-chleet-chleet-chleet, and a fast buzzy tit-tit-tit-tit-tit.<p>The Karoo prinia can only be confused with the closely related Drakensberg prinia, but has less yellow underparts with heavier spotting than that species.
Taxonomy
The Karoo prinia was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle, which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Montacilla maculosa in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. Buffon believed that his specimen had come from the Cape of Good Hope. The type locality was changed to Swellendam, in South Africa, by Phillip Clancey in 1963. The Karoo prinia is now placed in the genus Prinia that was introduced by the American naturalist Thomas Horsfield in 1821. The name of the genus is derived from the Javanese prinya, the local name for the bar-winged prinia (Prinia familiaris). The specific maculosa is from the Latin maculosus meaning "spotted".<p>Three subspecies are recognised:
- Scientific name
- Prinia maculosa
- Authority
- (Boddaert, 1783)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Cisticolidae
- Genus
- Prinia
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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