Drab whistler

Drab whistler
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Pachycephalidae
Genus:	Pachycephala
Species:	P. griseonota
Binomial name
Pachycephala griseonota G.R. Gray, 1862
Subspecies
See text

The drab whistler (Pachycephala griseonota) is a species of bird in the family Pachycephalidae. It is found in the Maluku Islands. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.

Taxonomy

The drab whistler was formally described in 1862 as Pachycephala griseonota by the English zoologist George Gray. ^[2] The specific epiphet is from Medieval Latin griseum meaning "grey". ^[3] Gray mistakenly believed that his specimen had been collected on the island of Mysol which lies to the west of New Guinea. The locality has been corrected to the larger island of Seram. ^[4]

Six subspecies are recognised: ^[5]

• P. g. lineolata Wallace, AR, 1863 – Peleng, in Banggai Island, and Taliabu, Seho, and Sanana, in Sula Islands (off eastern Sulawesi)
• P. g. cinerascens Salvadori, AT, 1878 – northern Moluccas (Morotai, Halmahera, Ternate, Tidore, and Bacan Islands)
• P. g. examinata Hartert, EJO, 1898 – Buru (southern Moluccas)
• P. g. griseonota Gray, GR, 1862 – Seram (southern Moluccas)
• P. g. kuehni Hartert, EJO, 1898 – Kai Islands (Kai Kecil and Kai Besar)
• P. g. johni Hartert, EJO, 1903 – Obi Islands (northern Moluccas)

The subspecies P. g. johni has sometimes been considered as a separate species, the cinnamon-breasted whistler. ^[6] A molecular phylogenetic study by Serina Brady and collaborators published in 2021 compared nuclear sequences and found that P. g. johni was closely related to P. g. cinerascens. The study did not sample the nominate P. g. griseonota nor the other subspecies. ^[7]

References

1. BirdLife International (2017). "Pachycephala griseonota". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2017 e.T22705525A118688786. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T22705525A118688786.en . Retrieved 17 November 2021.
2. Gray, George Robert (1861). "Remarks on, and descriptions of, new species of birds lately sent by Mr. A. R. Wallace from Waigiou, Mysol, and Gagie Islands". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 3 (published 1862): 427–438 [429].
3. Jobling, James A. "griseonota". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
4. Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1986). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 12. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 35.
5. AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". doi: 10.2173/avilist.v2025 . Retrieved 12 December 2025.
6. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (February 2025). "Whiteheads, sittellas, Ploughbill, Australo-Papuan bellbirds, Shriketit, whistlers". IOC World Bird List Version 15.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
7. Brady, S.S.; Moyle, R.G.; Joseph, L.; Andersen, M.J. (2021). "Systematics and biogeography of the whistlers (Aves: Pachycephalidae) inferred from ultraconserved elements and ancestral area reconstruction". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 168 107379. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2021.107379. PMID   34965464.