The Sri Lanka bush warbler (''Elaphrornis palliseri''), also known as Ceylon bush warbler or Palliser's warbler, is an

Old World warbler Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird family Sylviidae. 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 ci ...

which is an

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

resident breeder in Sri Lanka, where it is the only bush warbler.

Taxonomy

The Sri Lanka bush warbler has sometimes been placed in the genus '' Bradypterus'' and a 2018 study confirms that it is a sister to the clade that contains the ''Bradypterus'' and '' Megalurus'' warblers; it appears to be closely related to that genus, but differs in structure (relatively shorter-tailed and longer-billed), plumage (unmarked) and song. It is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

. The species is named after the collector Captain Edward Palliser (1826-1907). Edward and his brother Fred Palliser were both collectors in Sri Lanka. The species was described by Kelaart but published by

Edward Blyth Edward Blyth (23 December 1810 – 27 December 1873) was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the museum of the Asiatic Society of India in Calcutta. Blyth was born in London in 1810. In 1841 ...

in 1851.

Distribution

The Sri Lanka bush warbler is a

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 ...

of dense forest undergrowth, often close to water. It is found in the highlands of central

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, usually above 1200 m. The nest is built in a shrub, and two

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s are laid.

Description

This is a medium-large warbler at 14 cm. The adult has a plain brown back, pale grey underparts, a broad tail and short wings. There is a weak supercilium, and the throat is tinged orange. The sexes are identical, as with most warblers, but young birds lack the throat colouration. The Sri Lanka bush warbler is a skulking species which can be very difficult to see. Perhaps the best site is Horton Plains National Park. It keeps low in vegetation and, like most warblers, it is

insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were ...

. Males are often only detected by the loud song, which has an explosive ''queet''.

References

* Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is near threatened * ''Warblers of Europe, Asia and North Africa'' by Baker, * ''Birds of India'' by Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp, * ''A Field Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent'' by Kazmierczak and van Perlo, {{Taxonbar, from=Q1303497 Sri Lanka bush warbler Endemic birds of Sri Lanka Sri Lanka bush warbler Sri Lanka bush warbler