| Sylviidae | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Superfamily: | Sylvioidea |
| Family: | Sylviidae Leach, 1820 |
| Genera | |
See text | |
Sylviidae is a family of passerine birds that includes the typical warblers and a number of babblers formerly placed within the Old World babbler family. They are found in Eurasia and Africa.
The scientific name Sylviidae was introduced by the English zoologist William Elford Leach (as Sylviadæ) in a guide to the contents of the British Museum published in 1820. [1] [2] The family became part of an assemblage known as the Old World warblers and was a wastebin taxon with over 400 species of bird in over 70 genera. [3] Advances in classification, particularly helped with molecular data, have led to the splitting out of several new families from within this group. There is now evidence that these Sylvia "warblers" are more closely related to the Old World babblers than other warblers [4]
A molecular phylogenetic study using mitochondrial DNA sequence data published in 2011 found that the species in the genus Sylvia formed two distinct clades. [5] Based on these results, the ornithologists Edward Dickinson and Leslie Christidis in the fourth edition of Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World , chose to split the genus and moved most of the species into a resurrected genus Curruca , retaining only the Eurasian blackcap and the garden warbler in Sylvia . They also moved the African hill babbler and Dohrn's thrush-babbler into Sylvia. [6] The split was not accepted by the British Ornithologists' Union on the grounds that "a split into two genera would unnecessarily destabilize nomenclature and results in only a minor increase in phylogenetic information content." [7]
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| Phylogeny based on a study of the babblers by Cai and colleagues published in 2019. [8] [9] |
The family Sylviidae has undergone several revisions since the above phylogeny was published. As of August 2024, the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) recoganizes these 32 species divided among two genera: [10] This list is presented according to the IOC taxonomic sequence and can also be sorted alphabetically by common name and binomial.
| Genus | Common name | Binomial name | IOC sequence |
|---|---|---|---|
Sylvia Scopoli, 1769 | Eurasian blackcap | Sylvia atricapilla | 1 |
| Garden warbler | Sylvia borin | 2 | |
| Dohrn's warbler | Sylvia dohrni | 3 | |
| Abyssinian catbird | Sylvia galinieri | 4 | |
| Bush blackcap | Sylvia nigricapillus | 5 | |
| African hill babbler | Sylvia abyssinica | 6 | |
| Rwenzori hill babbler | Sylvia atriceps | 7 | |
Curruca Bechstein, 1802 | Barred warbler | Curruca nisoria | 8 |
| Layard's warbler | Curruca layardi | 9 | |
| Banded parisoma | Curruca boehmi | 10 | |
| Chestnut-vented warbler | Curruca subcoerulea | 11 | |
| Lesser whitethroat | Curruca curruca | 23 | |
| Brown parisoma | Curruca lugens | 13 | |
| Yemen warbler | Curruca buryi | 14 | |
| Arabian warbler | Curruca leucomelaena | 15 | |
| Western Orphean warbler | Curruca hortensis | 16 | |
| Eastern Orphean warbler | Curruca crassirostris | 17 | |
| African desert warbler | Curruca deserti | 18 | |
| Asian desert warbler | Curruca nana | 19 | |
| Tristram's warbler | Curruca deserticola | 20 | |
| Menetries's warbler | Curruca mystacea | 21 | |
| Rüppell's warbler | Curruca ruppeli | 22 | |
| Cyprus warbler | Curruca melanothorax | 23 | |
| Sardinian warbler | Curruca melanocephala | 24 | |
| Western subalpine warbler | Curruca iberiae | 25 | |
| Moltoni's warbler | Curruca subalpina | 26 | |
| Eastern subalpine warbler | Curruca cantillans | 27 | |
| Common whitethroat | Curruca communis | 28 | |
| Spectacled warbler | Curruca conspicillata | 29 | |
| Marmora's warbler | Curruca sarda | 30 | |
| Dartford warbler | Curruca undata | 31 | |
| Balearic warbler | Curruca balearica | 32 |
Sylviids are small to medium-sized passerine birds. The bill is generally thin and pointed with bristles at the base. Sylviids have a slender shape and an inconspicuous and mostly plain plumage. The wings have ten primaries, which are rounded and short in non-migratory species. [3]
Most species occur in Asia, and to a lesser extent in Africa. A few range into Europe.
Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird family Sylviidae. They are not closely related to the New World warblers. The family held over 400 species in over 70 genera, and were the source of much taxonomic confusion. Two families were split out initially, the cisticolas into Cisticolidae and the kinglets into Regulidae. In the past ten years they have been the subject of much research and many species are now placed into other families, including the Acrocephalidae, Cettiidae, Phylloscopidae, and Megaluridae. In addition some species have been moved into existing families or have not yet had their placement fully resolved. A smaller number of warblers, together with some babblers formerly placed in the family Timaliidae and the parrotbills, are retained in a much smaller family Sylviidae.
The buntings are a group of Old World passerine birds forming the genus Emberiza, the only genus in the family Emberizidae. The family contains 44 species. They are seed-eating birds with stubby, conical bills.
The typical warblers are small birds belonging to the genus Sylvia in the "Old World warbler" family Sylviidae.
The Old World babblers or Timaliidae, are a family of mostly Old World passerine birds. They are rather diverse in size and coloration, but are characterised by soft, fluffy plumage. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The timaliids are one of two unrelated groups of birds known as babblers, the other being the Australasian babblers of the family Pomatostomidae.
The parrotbills are a family, Paradoxornithidae, of passerine birds that are primarily native to East, Southeast and South Asia, with a single species in western North America, though feral populations exist elsewhere. They are generally small birds that inhabit reedbeds, forests and similar habitats. The traditional parrotbills feed mainly on seeds, e.g. of grasses, to which their robust bill, as the name implies, is well-adapted. Members of the family are usually non-migratory.
The common whitethroat or greater whitethroat is a common and widespread typical warbler which breeds throughout Europe and across much of temperate western Asia. This small passerine bird is strongly migratory, and winters in tropical Africa, Arabia, and Pakistan.
The Sardinian warbler is a common and widespread typical warbler from the Mediterranean region. Like most Curruca species, it has distinct male and female plumages. The adult male has a grey back, whitish underparts, black head, white throat and red eyes. Plumages are somewhat variable even in the same locality, with the intensity of a reddish hue on upper- and/or underside that varies from absent to pronounced. The female is mainly brown above and buff below, with a grey head. The Sardinian warbler's song is fast and rattling, and is very characteristic of the Mediterranean areas where this bird breeds.
Marmora's warbler is a typical warbler in the Sylviidae family. The specific sarda is a Latin feminine form for a person from Sardinia.
The wrentit is a small bird that lives in chaparral, oak woodlands, and bushland on the western coast of North America. It is the only species in the genus Chamaea.
The ashy-throated parrotbill is a parrotbill. In old sources, it may be called Alphonse's crow-tit; though superficially resembling a tit it is not a member of the Paridae. The native range of this species extends from south-west China to northern Vietnam, and it might have become naturalised in one area in Italy.
Chrysomma is a songbird genus. It is quite closely related to the parrotbills, and is therefore a member of the family Paradoxornithidae.
Dohrn's warbler, also known as Principe flycatcher-babbler, Dohrn's flycatcher, Dohrn's thrush-babbler, is a species of passerine bird in the family Sylviidae that is endemic to the island of Príncipe which lies off the west coast of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea.
Pseudoalcippe is a genus of passerine birds in the family Sylviidae that are found in Africa.
Sylvioidea is a superfamily of passerine birds, one of at least three major clades within the Passerida along with the Muscicapoidea and Passeroidea. It contains about 1300 species including the Old World warblers, Old World babblers, swallows, larks and bulbuls. Members of the clade are found worldwide, but fewer species are present in the Americas.
Alcippe is a genus of passerine birds in the monotypic family Alcippeidae. The genus once included many other fulvettas and was previously placed in families Pellorneidae or Timaliidae.
Staphida is a genus of passerine birds in the white-eye family Zosteropidae.
Zosterornis is a genus of passerine birds in the white-eye family Zosteropidae. The five species in the genus are endemic to the Philippines.
Suthora is a genus of parrotbills in the family Paradoxornithidae.
The Rwenzori hill babbler is a species of passerine bird in the family Sylviidae that is found in Africa.
Curruca is a genus of Sylviid warblers, best represented in Europe, Africa, and Asia. All of these species were formerly placed in the genus Sylvia.
