Chapin's crombec (''Sylvietta leucophrys chapini'') is an enigmatic African

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 ...

, formerly placed in the

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 ...

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 Sylvi ...

. It is currently considered a subspecies of the

white-browed crombec The white-browed crombec (''Sylvietta leucophrys'') is a species of African warbler, formerly placed in the family Sylviidae. The enigmatic Chapin's crombec might be a distinct species, or a subspecies ''Sylvietta leucophrys chapini'' of the pr ...

, but might be a distinct

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

; too little is known about it to determine this now with reasonable certainty. It is found only in the

Lendu Plateau The Lendu Plateau is an area of high ground in the Ituri Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on the northwest side of Lake Albert. Location The Lendu plateau is roughly a rectangle 80 km long and 50 wide, with the long a ...

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. It was removed from the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

in 2007 as it is considered a white-browed crombec subspecies, pending further research. It was previously considered a species of least concern, though actually it has not been encountered for some time, and might even be extinct. However, this is not very likely given the fairly low rates of bird extinctions in Africa - compared to, e.g.,

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

and

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 United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

. In any case, the

Second Congo War The Second Congo War,, group=lower-alpha also known as the Great War of Africa or the Great African War and sometimes referred to as the African World War, began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August 1998, little more than a year a ...

, and especially the

Ituri conflict The Ituri conflict (french: Guerre d'Ituri) is an ongoing conflict between the agriculturalist Lendu and pastoralist Hema ethnic groups in the Ituri region of the north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). While the two groups ha ...

, have completely prevented any effort to relocate these birds. The common name commemorates the American ornithologist

James Paul Chapin James Paul Chapin (July 9, 1889 – April 5, 1964) was an American ornithologist and curator of the American Museum of Natural History. Biography Chapin is one of the highest-regarded ornithologists of the twentieth century. He was joint leade ...

References

Chapin's crombec Birds of Central Africa Endemic birds of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Chapin's crombec Chapin's crombec Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{macrosphenidae-stub