Roberts's Warbler
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Roberts's warbler (''Oreophilais robertsi''), also known as Roberts' prinia, briar warbler or brier warbler, is a species of
passerine bird 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 ...
belonging to the
family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
Cisticolidae The family Cisticolidae is a group of about 160 warblers, small passerine birds found mainly in warmer southern regions of the Old World. They were formerly included within the Old World warbler family Sylviidae. This family probably originated ...
. This species is endemic to the
Eastern Highlands :''"Eastern Highlands" also refers to Eastern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea, and part of the Great Dividing Range, Australia.'' The Eastern Highlands, also known as the Manica Highlands, is a mountain range on the border of Zimbabwe ...
of
Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...
and
Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...
. Its natural
habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...
s are subtropical or tropical moist
montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...
and
subtropical or tropical moist shrubland The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones immediately to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Ge ...
. It is the only species in the genus ''Oreophilias''.


Taxonomy

Roberts's warbler was first formally described as ''Prinia robertsi'' in 1946 by the British
ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...
Constantine Walter Benson Constantine Walter Benson OBE (2 February 1909 – 21 September 1982) was a British ornithologist and author of over 350 publications. He is considered the last of a line of British Colonial officials that made significant contributions to ornit ...
, although it had originally been identified as a distinct species at Mount Selinda by
Charles Swynnerton __NOTOC__ Charles Francis Massy Swynnerton Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, CMG (3 December 1877 – 8 June 1938) was an English naturalist noted for his contributions to tsetse fly research. Swynnerton was born in Folkestone ...
in 1906. Benson gave the type locality as
Vumba The Bvumba Mountains or Vumba Mountains straddle the Zimbabwe–Mozambique border, and lie some 10 km southeast of the city of Mutare. The Bvumba rise to Castle Beacon at 1,911 metres, and are, together with the Chimanimani Mountains to the ...
. In 1991
Phillip Clancey Phillip Alexander Clancey (26 September 1917 – 18 July 2001) was a leading authority on the ornithology of South Africa. Background and education Phillip Clancey was born, brought up and educated in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied at the G ...
proposed the new
monospecific genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...
''Oreophilias'' as, among other features which differed, this species had 8 tail feathers rather than the 10 present in species in the genus ''
Prinia Prinia is a genus of small insectivorous birds belonging to the passerine bird family Cisticolidae. They were at one time classed in the Old World warbler family, Sylviidae. The prinias are sometimes referred to as wren-warblers. They are a ...
''. Clancey suggested that ''Oreophilias'' was a more basal taxon thena ''Prinia'' because of the lower number of retrices. Roberts's warbler belongs to the family Cisticolidae, which includes the cisticolas,
prinias Prinias (ancient Rizinia) is an archaeological site in Crete that has revealed a seventh-century BCE temple with striking similarities to ancient Egyptian architecture, including an Egyptianised seated goddess. It is southwest of Iraklion, about h ...
, apalises, tailorbirds,
eremomela The eremomelas are a genus, ''Eremomela'', of passerines in the cisticola family Cisticolidae. The genus was previously placed with the larger Old World warbler family Sylviidae prior to that genus being broken up into several families. The genus ...
s and other groups of “African” warblers, formerly classified within the
Old World warbler The Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird family Sylviidae. They are not closely related to the New World warblers. The family held over 400 species in over 70 genera, and were the source of much taxo ...
family
Sylviidae Sylviidae is a family of passerine birds that includes the typical warblers ''Sylvia'', and closely related genus '' Curruca'', formerly included in ''Sylvia''. They are found in Eurasia and Africa, with the greatest diversity in the Mediterrane ...
. The Cisticolidae is now classified in the
superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...
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 ...
, part of the
Corvides Corvides is a clade of birds in the order of Passeriformes. Previously referred to as the core Corvoidea,Jønsson K.A., Fabre P.-H., Kennedy J.D., Holt B.G., Borregaard M.K., Rahbek C., Fjeldså J. (2016A supermatrix phylogeny of corvoid passerin ...
clade within the
suborder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized ...
Passeri 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 5,00 ...
in the order
Passeriformes 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 ...
. This species is monotypic with no
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 ...
.


Etymology

Roberts's warbler has the genus name ''Oreophiilias'' which Clancey explained as combining ''oreophil'', being
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
meaning "mountain-loving", with ''lais'', which is derived from ''hypolais'', a small warbler-like songbird. The
specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
honours the South African ornithologist Austin Roberts in recognition of his contribution to the ornithology of southern Africa.


Description

Roberts's warbler resembles the related species in the genus ''
Prinia Prinia is a genus of small insectivorous birds belonging to the passerine bird family Cisticolidae. They were at one time classed in the Old World warbler family, Sylviidae. The prinias are sometimes referred to as wren-warblers. They are a ...
'' in being long-tailed warbler-like birds. This species differs from that genus by 8 rather than 10 feathers in the tail which has a more stepped profile than the graduated profile of ''Prinia''. It is a dark-grey warbler which bears the closest resemblance to is the tawny-flanked prinia (''P. subflava'') but differs in having a grey throat, pale eye and lake of brown edges to feathers of the upperparts. The upperpart of the head with the rest of the upperparts being dull olive brown, the flight feathers of the wing are dark brown and the tail is brown. The underparts are grey to rufous grey and are paler in the non breeding season and in the juveniles the eye is dark.. The length of Roberts's warbler is .


Distribution and habitat

Robert's warbler is endemic to the
Eastern Highlands :''"Eastern Highlands" also refers to Eastern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea, and part of the Great Dividing Range, Australia.'' The Eastern Highlands, also known as the Manica Highlands, is a mountain range on the border of Zimbabwe ...
of Zimbabwe where it is found from the
Chimanimani Mountains The Chimanimani Mountains are a mountain range on the border of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The mountains are in the southern portion of the Eastern Highlands, or Manica Highlands, a belt of highlands that extend north and south along the internatio ...
in the south to
Nyanga Nyanga may mean: *Nyanga Province, of Gabon *Nyanga River, in Gabon and Congo *Nyanga people, an ethnic group from Congo *Nyanga, Zimbabwe, a town *Nyanga District, Zimbabwe *Nyanga National Park in Zimbabwe *Nyanga, Western Cape, a township in Sou ...
in the north, typically at altitudes above , where it appears to replace the tawny-flanked prinia, although the two species overlap with Roberts's warbler preferring denser cover than the prinia. Its range extends into adjacent parts of Mozambique but it has not been recorded from
Mount Gorongosa Mount Gorongosa is an inselberg in Sofala Province of central Mozambique. Its highest peak, Gogogo, reaches an elevation of 1,863 meters (6,112 feet). It was created by Karoo Volcanism. The upper zone of the mountain (above 700 meters) was ma ...
. It prefers forest along streams, clearings, dense stands of
bracken Bracken (''Pteridium'') is a genus of large, coarse ferns in the family (biology), family Dennstaedtiaceae. Ferns (Pteridophyta) are vascular plants that undergo alternation of generations, having both large plants that produce spores and small ...
, ''
Erica Erica or ERICA may refer to: * Erica (given name) * Erica (plant), ''Erica'' (plant), a flowering plant genus * Erica (chatbot), a service of Bank of America * Erica (video game), ''Erica'' (video game), a 2019 FMV video game * Erica (spider), ' ...
'' and briar (''
Smilax ''Smilax'' is a genus of about 300–350 species, found in the tropics and subtropics worldwide. They are climbing flowering plants, many of which are woody and/or thorny, in the monocotyledon family (biology), family Smilacaceae, native through ...
'') along forest edges.


Biology

Robert's warbler is frequently encountered in small parties of up to 10 birds foraging among the lower branches of the forest, among bracken and briars, these foraging parties often halt to chatter together and they keep in contact with a repetitive call, "nyerk-nyerk-nyerk", as well as buzzing notes. These vocalisations are rather
babbler Babbler may refer to: * Various small passerine birds: ** The Old World babblers, a large family of mostly Old World passerine birds ** The Ground babblers of family Pellorneidae ** Many species in the genera ''Argya'' and ''Turdoides'' in family ...
-like but are less guttural than the calls of babblers. It is an insectivorous species and may forage alone, as well as in the parties described above, and also in mixed species flocks. It has been recorded eating flies, beetles and grasshoppers. It breeds between September and February, with most laying taking place in September. The nest is oval in shape with an entrance offset at the top and it is made from fine grasses and moss, held together with spider web and located about above the ground. The clutch consists of 2 or 3 turquoise eggs which are spotted with brown and lilac.


Conservation status

Robert's warbler is classified as a species of
Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...
by the
International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...
. It does have a restricted range but this does not seem to approach the thresholds for the species to be classified as Vulnerable. The population, although not know, is apparently stable and is thought to be large enough to justify its classification as Least Concern.


References

* Ryan, Peter. (2006). Family Cisticolidae (Cisticolas and allies). pp. 378–492 in del Hoyo J., Elliott A. & Christie D.A. (2006) ''
Handbook of the 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. ...
''. Volume 11. Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers'' Lynx Edicions, Barcelona


External links

* Roberts's warbler
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
{{Taxonbar, from=Q25249035 Roberts's warbler Birds of East Africa Birds of Southern Africa Vertebrates of Zimbabwe Vertebrates of Mozambique Robert's warbler Robert's warbler Taxa named by Phillip Clancey Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Fauna of the Eastern Highlands