Gansu Leaf-warbler

Gansu Leaf-warbler
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Phylloscopidae
Genus: Phylloscopus
Species: P. kansuensis
Binomial name
Phylloscopus kansuensis
Meise, 1933

The Gansu Leaf-warbler (Phylloscopus kansuensis) is a small passerine bird known only from China. It belongs to the leaf warbler genus Phylloscopus within the family Phylloscopidae. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of Pallas's Warbler (P. proregulus) but is now regarded as a separate species based on differences in voice and cytochrome-b gene sequences.[2]

It is 10 cm long, slightly larger than Pallas's Warbler. It has greenish upperparts, pale underparts and a pale rump. The head has a long white supercilium and a pale stripe along the centre of the crown. The wings have one conspicuous wingbar, a slight second bar and whitish edges to the tertials.[3]

The song is very different from Pallas's Warbler and consists of a thin, high-pitched note followed by a series of accelerating notes and finally a trill.[3]

It is known to breed only in Gansu and Qinghai provinces in northern China. Its wintering grounds are uncertain but probably lie in Yunnan province in southern China.[3] It is found up to 3,200 metres above sea-level in deciduous forest with some spruce and juniper.[3][4] It is not currently known to be threatened with extinction and so is classed as a species of Least Concern by BirdLife International.[4]

References

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2008). "Phylloscopus kansuensis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.1. International Union for Conservation of Nature. http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/150835. Retrieved 28 June 2009. 
  2. ^ Martens, Jochen; Dieter Thomas Tietze, Siegfried Eck & Michael Veith (2004) Radiation and species limits in the Asian Pallas's warbler complex (Phylloscopus proregulus s.l.), Journal of Ornithology, 145 (3): 206-222. [Abstract only]
  3. ^ a b c d MacKinnon, John & Karen Phillipps (2000) A Field Guide to the Birds of China, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
  4. ^ a b BirdLife International (2009) Species factsheet: Phylloscopus kansuensis. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 28 June 2009

External links