The scaly-breasted cupwing or scaly-breasted wren-babbler (''Pnoepyga albiventer'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the Pnoepyga wren-babblers family, Pnoepygidae. It is found in southern and eastern Asia from the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The Taiwan cupwing was once treated as a subspecies of the scaly-breasted cupwing. The Chinese cupwing has been merged into this species.

Description

The scaly-breasted cupwing is a very small babbler with almost no tail, around 9 cm long and weighing between 19 and 23 g. The

plumage Plumage () is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, there can b ...

is olive on the back and lightly scalloped on the chest.

Distribution and habitat

The 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 ...

of the scaly-breasted cupwing is subtropical 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 ...

. Within that habitat it is usually found near water. The species undertakes some altitudinal migration, moving closer to sea level during the winter over some of its range.

Gallery

Image:Scaly-breasted Wren Babbler I IMG 6870.jpg, in Kullu - Manali District of Himachal Pradesh, India Image:Scaly-breasted Wren Babbler I IMG 6868.jpg, in Kullu - Manali District of Himachal Pradesh, India Image:Scaly-breasted Wren Babbler I IMG 6872.jpg, in Kullu - Manali District of Himachal Pradesh, India

References

*Collar, N. J. & Robson, C. 2007. Family Timaliidae (Babblers) pp. 70 – 291 in; del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Christie, D.A. eds. ''

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. ...

'', Vol. 12. Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. scaly-breasted cupwing Birds of North India Birds of Nepal Birds of Eastern Himalaya Birds of Central China Birds of Yunnan Birds of Vietnam scaly-breasted cupwing Taxa named by Brian Houghton Hodgson Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{timaliidae-stub