''Horornis'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of small insectivorous

songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 5000 ...

s ("

warbler Various Passeriformes (perching birds) are commonly referred to as warblers. They are not necessarily closely related to one another, but share some characteristics, such as being fairly small, vocal, and insectivorous. Sylvioid warblers Th ...

s") which make up the core of the newly recognized

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Cettiidae. They were formerly placed in the

Sylviidae 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. Taxonomy and systematics The scientific name Sylvii ...

, which at that time was a wastebin taxon for the warbler-like

Sylvioidea 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 ...

. The range of this genus occurs from southeast Asia throughout the western

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

. The most recently described species is the Bougainville bush warbler (''Horornis haddeni'') from Bougainville Island. These typical bush warblers share the lifestyle and related adaptations and apomorphies with ''

Bradypterus ''Bradypterus'' is a genus of small insectivorous songbirds ("warblers") in the newly recognized grass warbler family (Locustellidae). They were formerly placed in the Sylviidae, which at that time was a wastebin taxon for the warbler-like Syl ...

'', the other genus called bush warblers. However, ''Bradypterus'' is related to the grass warblers of '' Locustella'' and '' Megalurus'' and is more distant from ''Cettia''. Both "bush warbler" genera are smallish birds well adapted to climbing among shrubbery. They are markedly long-tailed birds, at first glance somewhat reminiscent of wrens. These are quite terrestrial birds, which live in densely vegetated habitats such as thick forest and reedbeds. They will walk away from disturbance rather than flush. The plumage similarities and skulking lifestyle makes these birds hard to see and identify. These bush warblers tend towards rich or greyish browns above and buffish or light grey tones below. They have little patterning apart from the ubiquitous supercilium. Altogether, they appear much like the plainer species among '' Acrocephalus'' marsh warblers in coloration. Megalurid bush warblers tend to be somewhat slimmer and have a very long and pointed tail, but are otherwise very similar.

Species

This genus has been split from the genus ''

Cettia ''Cettia'' is a genus of small insectivorous songbirds (" warblers") which make up the core of the newly recognized family Cettiidae. They were formerly placed in the Sylviidae, which at that time was a wastebin taxon for the warbler-like Sylv ...

''.

Cetti's warbler Cetti's warbler (''Cettia cetti'') is a small, brown bush-warbler which breeds in southern and central Europe, northwest Africa and the east Palearctic as far as Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan. The sexes are alike. The bird is named after t ...

(''C. cetti''), the previous

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

, seems close to the genus '' Tesia'' from

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

and neighboring regions. Birds in the genus ''Horornis'', such as the famous ''uguisu'' (鶯,

Japanese bush warbler The Japanese bush warbler (''Horornis diphone''), known in Japanese as ''uguisu'' (鶯), is an Asian passerine bird more often heard than seen. Its distinctive breeding song can be heard throughout much of Japan from the start of spring. Descri ...

, ''H. diphone'') and the brown-flanked bush warbler (''H. fortipes'') belong to a group that might include the aberrant broad-billed warbler (''Tickellia hodgsoni''). This latter species differs wildly in its gaudy colors but in habitus is a typical "bush warbler".Alström ''et al.'' (2006), Fuchs ''et al.'' (2006)

Footnotes

References

* Alström, P.; Ericson, P.G.P.; Olsson, U. & Sundberg, P. (2006): Phylogeny and classification of the avian superfamily Sylvioidea. '' Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.'' 38(2): 381–397. PDF fulltext
* del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew & Sargatal, Jordi (eds.) (2006): ''

Handbook of 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 ...

'' (Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers). Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. * Fuchs, J.; Fjeldså, J.; Bowie, R.C.K.; Voelker, G. & Pasquet, E. (2006): The African warbler genus ''Hyliota'' as a lost lineage in the Oscine songbird tree: Molecular support for an African origin of the Passerida. '' Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.'' 39(1): 186–197. (HTML abstract) {{Taxonbar, from=Q9293884 Bird genera