The Nepal cupwing (''Pnoepyga immaculata''), also known as the Nepal wren-babbler or immaculate cupwing, is a small species of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family

Pnoepygidae ''Pnoepyga'' is a genus of passerines endemic to southern and southeastern Asia. Its members are known as cupwings or wren-babblers. The genus contains four species. The genus has long been placed in the babbler family Timaliidae. A 2009 study o ...

. It is native to

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

, and

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

. It is found in dense

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

in the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

Nomenclature and taxonomy

The Nepal cupwing is in the genus '' Pnyoepyga''. Its closest relatives are the

scaly-breasted cupwing The scaly-breasted cupwing or scaly-breasted wren-babbler (''Pnoepyga albiventer'') is a species of bird in the Pnoepyga wren-babblers family, Pnoepygidae. It is found in southern and eastern Asia from the Himalayas to Indochina. Taxonomy and s ...

Taiwan cupwing The Taiwan cupwing or Taiwan wren-babbler (''Pnoepyga formosana'') is a species of passerine bird in the family Pnoepygidae. The species is endemic to the island of Taiwan. It was treated for a long time as a subspecies of the scaly-breasted cupw ...

, and

pygmy cupwing The pygmy cupwing (''Pnoepyga pusilla'') or pygmy wren-babbler, is a species of bird in the Pnoepyga wren-babblers family, Pnoepygidae. It is found in southern and eastern Asia from the Himalayas to the Lesser Sunda Islands. Its natural habitats ...

. It was first described by Jochen Martens and Siegfried Eck in 1991, having been identified as a separate species based on differences in voice. Genetic phylogeny suggests that it forms a

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

with the pygmy cupwing. No subspecies have been described. It was formerly classified, with the other cuplings, as an

Old World babbler 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 S ...

in the family Timaliidae until 2009, when the monotypic family Pneopygidae was created for the cupwings, reflecting recent developments in

molecular phylogeny Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

. The name "Nepal cupwing" is used by the International Ornithologist's Union and by the ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...

'', while "immaculate cupwing" is used in

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...

and in

Indian English Indian English (IE) is a group of English dialects spoken in the republic of India and among the Indian diaspora. English is used by the Indian government for communication, along with Hindi, as enshrined in the Constitution of India. E ...

, including ''

The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world. The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 2022 ...

''. The name "Nepal wren-babbler' was formerly used by these taxonomic authorities but is no longer in official use.

Description

The Nepal cupwing is small, measuring 8.5cm—10cm in length, and is brownish-olive in colouration. It has dark scaling on the upperparts and paler scaling on the underparts, a scaly breast with brown central feathers, pale edging on the flight feathers, and a very short tail. External morphology is very similar to the other species, to a degree where identification within the field relies upon vocalizations. The song is distinctive, being higher pitched than the other species in the genus and consisting of a steady series of thin, short, rapid, modulated whistles that descend in pitch.

Distribution and habitat

This species is native to the foothills of the

. It is a regular resident in

, and

, and an uncommon resident around

Zhangmu Zhangmu (also from Tibetan as Dram or Zham, from Nepali as Khasa) is a customs town and port of entry located in Nyalam County on the Nepal-China border, just uphill and across the Bhote Koshi River from the Nepalese town of Kodari. At above se ...

. Preferred habitat is dense

understorey In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but abov ...

in median and low mountain elevations. It is not migratory, but altitudinal movements do occur, as they winter down to 250 metres. It occurs regularly between 1800 and 2200 metres, and possibly breeds as high as 3100 metres. Generally, this species prefers dark forest and keeps to the

forest floor The forest floor, also called detritus, duff and the O horizon, is one of the most distinctive features of a forest ecosystem. It mainly consists of shed vegetative parts, such as leaves, branches, bark, and stems, existing in various stage ...

. Its conservation status is Least Concern.

References

Birds of North India Birds of Nepal Nepal wren-babbler Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{timaliidae-stub