Sylvia (bird)

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

There are 7 species in the genus.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 Jønsson, K. A. & Fjeldså, J. (2006). A phylogenetic supertree of oscine passerine birds (Aves: Passeri). '' Zool. Scripta'' 35 (2): 149–186. (HTML abstract) 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.

Taxonomy and systematics

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

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. The other "Old World warblers" have been moved to their own families, entirely redelimiting the Sylviidae.

A molecular phylogenetic study using mitochondrial DNA sequence data published in 2011 found that the species in the genus ''Sylvia'' formed two distinct clades. 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''. 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."

Extant species

The genus as currently circumscribed includes the following species:
* Eurasian blackcap ''Sylvia atricapilla''
* Garden warbler ''Sylvia borin''
* Dohrn's warbler ''Sylvia dohrni''
* Abyssinian catbird ''Sylvia galinieri''
* Bush blackcap ''Sylvia nigricapillus''
* African hill babbler ''Sylvia abyssinica''
* Rwenzori hill babbler ''Sylvia atriceps''

References

Further reading

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External links

Typical warbler videos
on the Internet Bird Collection

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Taxa named by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli