Typical warbler

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Typical warblers
Sylvia borin (Orebro County).jpg
Garden warbler (Sylvia borin)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Sylviidae
Genus: Sylvia
Scopoli, 1769
Type species
Motacilla atricapilla (Eurasian blackcap)
Linnaeus, 1758
Species

See text

Synonyms

Parisoma Swainson in Richardson, 1832

The typical warblers are small birds belonging to the genus Sylvia in the "Old World warbler" (or sylviid warbler) family Sylviidae. [1] [2]

Contents

There are seven species in the genus. [1] [2] [3] [4] Typical warblers occur in the temperate to tropical regions of Europe, western and central Asia, and Africa, with the highest species diversity centred on the Mediterranean.

They are strongly built, with stouter legs and a slightly thicker bill than many other warblers. The plumage is in varying shades of grey and brown, usually darker above and paler below, with bluish or pinkish tones in several species; several also have orange-brown or rufous fringed wing feathers. The tail is square-ended in most, slightly rounded in a few, and in several species has white sides. Many of the species show some sexual dimorphism, with distinctive male and female plumages, with the males in many having black or bright grey on the heads, replaced by brown, brownish-grey or similar dusky colours in females; about a third of the species also have a conspicuous red eye ring in males. Species breeding in cool temperate regions are strongly migratory, while most of those in warmer regions are partially migratory or resident. They are active warblers usually associated with open woodland, scrub, hedges or shrubs. Their diet is largely insectivorous, though several species also eat fruit extensively, mainly small berries such as elder and ivy, particularly from late summer to late winter; one species (blackcap) also frequently takes a wide variety of human-provided foods on birdtables in winter. [2] [5]

Taxonomy and systematics

The genus Sylvia was introduced in 1769 by the Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli. [6] Scopoli did not specify a type species but this was designated as the Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1828. [7] [8] The genus name is from Modern Latin silvia, a woodland sprite, related to silva meaning "a wood". [9]

The typical warblers are now known to form a major lineage in a clade containing also the parrotbills and some taxa formerly considered to be Old World babblers. [10] [11] The other "Old World warblers" have been moved to their own families, entirely redelimiting the Sylviidae. [12]

A molecular phylogenetic study using mitochondrial DNA sequence data published in 2011 found that the species in the genus Sylvia formed two distinct clades. [13] 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. In an additional change they moved the African hill babbler and Dohrn's thrush-babbler into Sylvia. [14] The split was not made 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." [15]

Extant species

The genus as currently circumscribed includes the following species: [16]

Related Research Articles

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylviidae</span> Family of birds

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old World babbler</span> Family of birds

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parrotbill</span> Group of birds

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common whitethroat</span> Species of bird

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sardinian warbler</span> Species of bird

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marmora's warbler</span> Species of bird

Marmora's warbler is a typical warbler in the Sylviidae family. The specific sarda is a Latin feminine form for a person from Sardinia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wrentit</span> Species of bird

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashy-throated parrotbill</span> Species of bird

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.

<i>Cincloramphus</i> Genus of birds

Cincloramphus is a genus of birds in the grassbird family Locustellidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dohrn's warbler</span> Species of bird

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.

<i>Pseudoalcippe</i> Genus of birds

Pseudoalcippe is a genus of passerine birds in the family Sylviidae that are found in Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraq babbler</span> Species of bird

The Iraq babbler is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae, native to reed beds of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. It is found in Iraq and south-western Iran.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylvioidea</span> Superfamily of birds

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.

<i>Alcippe</i> (bird) Genus of birds

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.

<i>Staphida</i> Genus of birds

Staphida is a genus of passerine birds in the white-eye family Zosteropidae.

<i>Zosterornis</i> Genus of birds

Zosterornis is a genus of passerine birds in the white-eye family Zosteropidae. The five species in the genus are endemic to the Philippines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pellorneidae</span> Family of birds

The jungle babblers are a family, Pellorneidae, of mostly Old World passerine birds belonging to the superfamily Sylvioidea. They are quite diverse in size and coloration, and usually characterised by soft, fluffy plumage and a tail on average the length of their body, or longer. These birds are found in tropical zones, with the greatest biodiversity in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

<i>Suthora</i> Genus of birds

Suthora is a genus of parrotbills in the family Paradoxornithidae.

<i>Curruca</i> Genus of birds

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.

References

  1. 1 2 Gill, Frank; Donsker, David (eds.). "Sylviid babblers, parrotbills & white-eyes". World Bird List Version 6.3. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A., & Christie, D. (editors). (2006). Handbook of the Birds of the World . Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers. Lynx Edicions. ISBN   84-96553-06-X.
  3. Helbig, A. J. (2001). The characteristics of the genus: Phylogeny and biogeography of the genus Sylvia. Pages 24–28 in: Shirihai, H., Gargallo, G., Helbig, A. J., & Harris, A. Sylvia Warblers. Helm Identification Guides ISBN   0-7136-3984-9
  4. Jønsson, K. A. & Fjeldså, J. (2006). A phylogenetic supertree of oscine passerine birds (Aves: Passeri). Zool. Scripta 35 (2): 149–186. doi : 10.1111/j.1463-6409.2006.00221.x (HTML abstract)
  5. Snow, D. W., & Perrins, C. M. (1998). The Birds of the Western Palearctic (Concise ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   0-19-854099-X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. Scopoli, Giovanni Antonio (1769). Annus I historico-naturalis (in Latin). Lipsiae (Leipzig): C.G. Hilscheri. p. 154.
  7. Bonaparte, Charles Lucien (1828). American Ornithology; or, The Natural History of Birds Inhabiting the United States, Not Given By Wilson. Vol. 2. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey. p. 17.
  8. Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1986). Check-list of Birds of the World. Volume 11. Vol. 11. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 270.
  9. Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p.  376. ISBN   978-1-4081-2501-4.
  10. Alström, P.; Ericson, P. G. P.; Olsson, U.; Sundberg, P. (2006). "Phylogeny and classification of the avian superfamily Sylvioidea". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 38 (2): 381–397. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.05.015. PMID   16054402.
  11. Cibois, Alice (2003). "Mitochondrial DNA phylogeny of babblers (Timaliidae)". The Auk. 120 (1): 35–54. doi:10.1642/0004-8038(2003)120[0035:MDPOBT]2.0.CO;2. JSTOR   4090138.
  12. Cai, T.; Cibois, A.; Alström, P.; Moyle, R.G.; Kennedy, J.D.; Shao, S.; Zhang, R.; Irestedt, M.; Ericson, P.G.P.; Gelang, M.; Qu, Y.; Lei, F.; Fjeldså, J. (2019). "Near-complete phylogeny and taxonomic revision of the world's babblers (Aves: Passeriformes)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 130: 346–356. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2018.10.010 .
  13. Voelker, Gary; Light, Jessica E. (2011). "Palaeoclimatic events, dispersal and migratory losses along the Afro-European axis as drivers of biogeographic distribution in Sylvia warblers". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 11 (163): 163. doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-11-163 . PMC   3123607 . PMID   21672229.
  14. Dickinson, E.C.; Christidis, L., eds. (2014). The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World, Volume 2: Passerines (4th ed.). Eastbourne, UK: Aves Press. ISBN   978-0-9568611-2-2.
  15. Sangster, G.; et al. (2016). "Taxonomic recommendations for Western Palearctic birds: 11th report". Ibis. 158 (1): 206–212. doi:10.1111/ibi.12322.
  16. Gill, F.; Donsker, D.; Rasmussen, P. (eds.). "Family Sylviidae". IOC World Bird List . Version 10.1. International Ornithological Congress. Retrieved 1 July 2020.

Further reading