The western Orphean warbler (''Curruca hortensis'') is a

typical warbler 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 1 ...

of the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Curruca''. This

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

occurs in summer around the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

, through western

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and extending into northwest

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. It is migratory, wintering in

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

. It is a rare vagrant to northern and north-western Europe.

Taxonomy and etymology

The English name refers to the

mythical Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

musician and singer

Orpheus In Greek mythology, Orpheus (; , classical pronunciation: ) was a Thracians, Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet. He was also a renowned Ancient Greek poetry, poet and, according to legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in se ...

. The specific ''hortensis'' is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "of a garden", from ''hortus'', "garden". Two

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

are unequivocally accepted,Snow, David W.; Perrins, Christopher M.; Doherty, Paul & Cramp, Stanley (1998). ''The complete birds of the western Palaearctic on CD-ROM''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. . but they are now usually considered separate species.Helbig, A. J. (2001). Phylogeny and biogeography of the genus ''Sylvia'', in: Shirihai, Hadoram: ''Sylvia warblers'': 24-29.

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

, Princeton, N.J. Jønsson, Knud A. & Fjeldså, Jon (2006). A phylogenetic supertree of oscine passerine birds (Aves: Passeri). '' Zool. Scripta'' 35(2): 149–186. (HTML abstract). The western Orphean warbler is probably most closely allied to the Arabian warbler, as well as the

brown warbler The brown parisoma or brown warbler (''Curruca lugens'') is a typical warbler 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., & ...

and

Yemen warbler The Yemen warbler or Yemen parisoma (''Curruca buryi'') is a species of Old World warbler in the family Sylviidae. It is found on the southeastern slope of the Sarawat Mountains of Yemen and Saudi Arabia, where its natural habitat is subtropical ...

s which are sometimes placed in ''Parisoma''. They together with the

lesser whitethroat The lesser whitethroat (''Curruca curruca'') is a common and widespread typical warbler which breeds in temperate Europe, except the southwest, and in the western and central Palearctic. This small passerine bird is strongly migratory, winterin ...

group seem to form a distinct

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

of typical warblers. The species therein do not appear much alike at first glance, but they all have prominent white throats, lack rufous wing-patches, and usually having dark sides to the head.

Description

At in length – somewhat larger than a

blackcap The Eurasian blackcap (''Sylvia atricapilla'') is a bird usually known simply as the blackcap. It is a common and widespread typical warbler. It has mainly olive-grey upperparts and pale grey underparts, and differences across the five subspec ...

– this is one of the largest species of typical warblers. The adult males have a plain grey back and whitish underparts. The bill is long and pointed and the legs black. The male has a dark grey head, black eye mask, and white throat. The iris is white. Females and immatures have a paler head and buff underparts; their grey back has a brownish tinge. The iris is dark in young birds. The song is a series of warbling ' and scolding notes.

Behaviour and ecology

These small

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 generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

birds are found in open

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

woodland. 4-6 eggs are laid in a nest in a bush or tree. Like most "warblers", the western Orphean warbler is an

insectivore file:Common brown robberfly with prey.jpg, A Asilidae, robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivore, carnivorous animal or plant which eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the Entomophagy ...

References

* *

External links

Ageing and sexing (PDF; 2.4 MB) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q110257498, from2=Q616831

western Orphean warbler The western Orphean warbler (''Curruca hortensis'') is a typical warbler of the genus ''Curruca''. This species occurs in summer around the Mediterranean, through western Europe and extending into northwest Africa. It is migratory, wintering in ...

Birds of Southern Europe Birds of North Africa Wintering birds of Africa