Horornis

Horornis 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 Sylvioidea. The range of this genus occurs from southeast Asia throughout the western Pacific. The most recently described species is the Bougainville bush warbler (Horornis haddeni) from Bougainville Island.

Horornis
The brown-flanked bush warbler (Horornis fortipes)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Cettiidae
Genus: Horornis
Hodgson, 1845
Species

Some 15, but see text

These typical bush warblers share the lifestyle and related adaptations and apomorphies with Bradypterus, 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. Cetti's warbler (C. cetti), the previous type species, seems close to the genus Tesia from Southeast Asia and neighboring regions. Birds in the genus Horornis, such as the famous uguisu (鶯, Japanese bush warbler, 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".[1]

ImageCommon NameScientific nameDistribution
Manchurian bush warblerHorornis canturiansnortheastern China.
Japanese bush warblerHorornis diphoneJapan
Philippine bush warblerHorornis seebohmiPhilippines.
Palau bush warblerHorornis annaePalau.
Shade bush warblerHorornis parensSolomon Islands
Bougainville bush warblerHorornis haddeniBougainville Island in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea
Fiji bush warblerHorornis ruficapillaFiji.
Tanimbar bush warblerHorornis carolinaeYamdena
Brown-flanked bush warblerHorornis fortipesSouth Asia
Sunda bush warblerHorornis vulcaniusIndonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
Aberrant bush warblerHorornis flavolivaceasouthern China, and the northern extremes of Myanmar and Vietnam
Yellow-bellied bush warblerHorornis acanthizoidesmainland China and Taiwan
Hume's bush warblerHorornis brunnescensHimalayas of Nepal and India.

Footnotes
  1. Alström et al. (2006), Fuchs et al. (2006)

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. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.05.015 PMID 16054402 PDF fulltext
  • del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew & Sargatal, Jordi (eds.) (2006): Handbook of Birds of the World (Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers). Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 84-96553-06-X
  • 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. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.07.020 (HTML abstract)
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