>Sylvia nana (Asian Desert Warbler)

Asian Desert Warbler

Asian Desert Warbler
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Sylviidae
Genus:	Sylvia
Species:	S. nana
Binomial name
Sylvia nana (Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833, southern El Tor, Sinai Peninsula)
Synonyms
Sylvia nana theresae

The Asian Desert Warbler Sylvia nana is a typical warbler which breeds in the deserts of central and western Asia and the extreme east of Europe (Volga Delta area east to western Inner Mongolia in China), and migrating to similar habitats in southwestern Asia (Arabia to northwestern India) and the far northeast of Africa (Red Sea coastal regions) in winter. Until recently it was considered conspecific with the African Desert Warbler (and called just "Desert Warbler"), but is now given specific status. The two are still each other's closest living relatives, and their relationships to other typical warblers are not clear. They may be fairly close to the Whitethroat; particularly, female Whitethroats look much like a richly-coloured Asian Desert Warbler. But it seems that all these three taxa are fairly basal members of the genus.

It is a small bird (the second-smallest in the genus after African Desert Warbler), 11.5–12.5 cm long. The sexes are almost identical in colour, pale grey-brown above with browner wings and tail, and whitish below; the bill and legs are yellowish, and the eye has a yellow iris. Like its relatives, it is insectivorous, but will also take small berries; unlike most warblers, it commonly feeds on the ground. The song is a distinctive jingle often given in an advertisement flight, with a mix of clear and harsher notes. It breeds in semi-desert and dry steppe environments, as long as some bushes for nesting occur. The nest is built in low shrub, and 4–6 eggs are laid.

It has occurred as a rare vagrant as far west as Great Britain.

>Sylvia hortensis crassirostris (Eastern Orphean Warbler)

Eastern Orphean Warbler

Eastern Orphean Warbler
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Sylviidae
Genus:	Sylvia
Species:	S. hortensis
Binomial name
Sylvia hortensis crassirostris

The Eastern Orphean Warbler, Sylvia hortensis crassirostris, is a typical warbler of the genus Sylvia. This species occurs in summer around the Mediterranean, through the Balkans via Turkey, the Caucasus and surrounding regions to Central Asia. It is migratory, wintering in sub-Saharan Africa. Some taxonomists consider both subspecies Orphean Warblers to be distinct enough to separate them into species.

Overview

At 15–16 cm length - somewhat larger than a Blackcap - this is one of the largest species of typical warblers. The adult males have a plain grey back. 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 reddish underparts; their grey back has a brownish tinge. The iris is dark in young birds. The song is a series of warbling liroo-liroo and scolding notes. Song is more varied than the Western Orphean Warbler, approaching Nightingale in richness.(Snow 1998)

These small passerine birds are found in open deciduous woodland. 4-6 eggs are laid in a nest in a bush or tree. Like most "warblers", The Eastern Orphean Warbler is an insectivore.

>Sylvia hortensis (Orphean Warbler)

Orphean Warbler

Orphean Warbler
Adult male (center)
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Sylviidae
Genus:	Sylvia
Species:	S. hortensis
Binomial name
Sylvia hortensis (Gmelin, 1789, France)

The Orphean Warbler, Sylvia hortensis, is a typical warbler of the genus Sylvia. This species occurs in summer around the Mediterranean, through Turkey and the Caucasus and extending into Central Asia. It is migratory, wintering in sub-Saharan Africa. It is a rare vagrant to northern and north-western Europe.

Overview

At 15–16 cm length - somewhat larger than a Blackcap - 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 liroo-liroo and scolding notes.

These small passerine birds are found in open deciduous woodland. 4-6 eggs are laid in a nest in a bush or tree. Like most "warblers", Orphean Warbler is an insectivore.

Other common names are "greater pettychaps" or "European garden warbler". The latter should be by all means avoided as the Orphean Warbler does not occur in most parts of Europe, whereas the Garden Warbler proper does. In Italy, it is also known as beccafico("figpecker") as they were believed to gorge themselves on figs when these are in season. Such birds were considered delicacies and consequently much hunted and snared.

Two subspecies are unequivocally accepted (Snow et al. 1998), but they are increasingly considered separate species (Helbig 2001, Jønsson & Fjeldså 2006):

• Sylvia (hortensis) hortensis, Western Orphean Warbler

SW Europe and Maghreb east to Adriatic Sea and Gulf of Sidra, respectively

Conspicuous pinkish (males) or rusty (females) wash on underparts.

• Sylvia (hortensis) crassirostris, Eastern Orphean Warbler - includes balchanica and probably also jerdoni

Balkans via Turkey, the Caucasus and surrounding regions to Central Asia

Bill longer and stronger on average, though varies much. Little reddish wash on underparts, resulting in a crisper division between white belly and grey flanks. Song is more varied, approaching Nightingale in richness.(Snow 1998)

The Orphean Warbler is probably most closely allied to the Red Sea Warbler, as well as the Brown and Yemen Warblers which are sometimes placed in Parisoma. They together with the Lesser Whitethroat group seem to form a distinct clade 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.(Helbig 2001, Jønsson & Fjeldså 2006)

>Sylvia althaea (Hume's Whitethroat)

Hume's Whitethroat

Hume's Whitethroat
Wintering bird in Hyderabad, India.
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Sylviidae
Genus:	Sylvia
Species:	S. althaea
Binomial name
Sylvia althaea Hume, 1878, Kashmir
Synonyms
Sylvia curruca althaea

Hume's Whitethroat Sylvia althaea is a species of typical warbler. Until recently, it was considered conspecific with the Lesser Whitethroat; today these are seen as members of a superspecies which also includes the Desert Whitethroat. The present species together with the aridland Desert Whitethroat(s) seems to form an Asian lineage in the superspecies.

It is distinguished from the Lesser Whitethroat by its slightly larger size (13–14 cm), slightly stouter bill, and the darker top of the head and darker grey-brown back, which gives it less contrast between its upper head to back region than in Lesser Whitethroat. The throat is white, and the rest of the underparts pale greyish-white. Their breeding ranges do not overlap; Hume's Whitethroat inhabits upland regions from eastern Iran eastwards to the Tian Shan mountains of central Asia and the western ranges of the Himalaya. Hume's Whitethroat breeds at altitudes of 2,000–3,600 m in open scrub, often with juniper, and in cultivated areas such as almond orchards. It migrates south to southern Pakistan and India in the winter, where it does overlap with wintering Lesser Whitethroats in some areas.

Two subspecies are accepted:

• Sylvia althaea althaea – mountains of southwestern Asia.
• Sylvia althaea monticola – Alai, Pamir and Tian Shan mountains, in central Asia.

Birds breeding in the Caucasus Mountains and northwestern Iran have sometimes been considered intermediate between Lesser and Hume's Whitethroats,but are now more clearly assigned to Lesser Whitethroat, as the subspecies Sylvia curruca caucasica or even not separated from typical European S. c. curruca.

Gallery

• 

  at Hodal,Faridabad,

  Haryana,India.
 
• 

  at Hodal, Faridabad,

  Haryana, India.
 
• 

  in Kawal Wildlife Sanctuary, India.
 
• 

  in Kawal Wildlife Sanctuary, India.

>Sylvia minula (Desert Whitethroat)

Desert Whitethroat

Desert Whitethroat
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Sylviidae
Genus:	Sylvia
Species:	S. minula
Binomial name
Sylvia minula Hume, 1873
Synonyms
Sylvia curruca minula

The Desert Whitethroat (Sylvia minula) is a typical warbler. Until recently, it was considered conspecific with the Lesser Whitethroat; today these are seen as members of a superspecies. The Desert Whitethroat together with Hume's Whitethroat form an Asian lineage in the superspecies, which have diverged into species adapted to drier lowlands and moister mountain habitats respectively. The name Small Whitethroat has also been used by some authors, and Desert Lesser Whitethroat before it was split from Lesser Whitethroat.

Description

It is distinguished from Hume's and Lesser Whitethroats by its smaller size (12 cm length, 8–13 g weight), smaller bill, the uniformly paler grey head lacking the well-marked dark cheeks of Hume's and Lesser Whitethroats, and a lighter grey-brown back; in these differences it follows Gloger's rule of pale colour in arid regions. The throat is white, and the rest of the underparts pale greyish-white.

Taxonomy

Three subspecies are currently recognised, though some authors only accept the first two as distinct.

• Sylvia minula minula (syn. S. m. chuancheica). Western half of the species' range.
• Sylvia minula jaxartica (included in S. m. minula by some authors). Central part of the species' range.
• Sylvia minula margelanica. Eastern half of the species' range.

The presumed Lesser Whitethroat subspecies halimodendri and telengitica might actually belong to the Desert Whitethroat, or alternatively might represent hybrid intergrades between, respectively, S. m. jaxartica and S. m. margelanica and the Lesser Whitethroat.

Range and migration

Desert Whitethroat inhabits arid lowland regions from eastern Iran and Turkmenistan eastwards to Xinjiang in central China, breeding in open dry thorn scrub. The breeding range does not overlap with Lesser Whitethroat, occurring to the southeast of that; it does overlap geographically with Hume's Whitethroat but is separated altitudinally. The Desert Whitethroat migrates south to the Arabian Peninsula, southern Pakistan and northwestern India in the winter, where it does overlap with wintering Lesser Whitethroat in many areas, and more locally with wintering Hume's Whitethroat.

>Sylvia curruca (Lesser Whitethroat)

Lesser Whitethroat

Lesser Whitethroat
A Lesser Whitethroat in the Czech Republic
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Sylviidae
Genus:	Sylvia
Species:	S. curruca
Binomial name
Sylvia curruca (Linnaeus, 1758)

The Lesser Whitethroat (Sylvia curruca) is a common and widespread typical warbler which breeds in temperate Europe, except the southwest, and in western and central Asia. This small passerine bird is strongly migratory, wintering in Africa just south of the Sahara,Arabia and India.

at Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur,Rajasthan, India.

Unlike many typical warblers, the sexes are almost identical. This is a small species with a grey back, whitish underparts, a grey head with a darker "bandit mask" through the eyes and a white throat. It is slightly smaller than the Whitethroat, and lacks the chestnut wings and uniform head-face color of that species. The Lesser Whitethroat's song is a fast and rattling sequence of tet or che calls, quite different from the Whitethroat's scolding song.

Like most "warblers", it is insectivorous, but will also take berries and other soft fruit. This is a bird of fairly open country and cultivation, with large bushes for nesting and some trees. The nest is built in low shrub or brambles, and 3–7 eggs are laid.

Taxonomy

This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 edition of Systema Naturae, from a specimen collected in southern Sweden.

This species has been commonly assumed to be closely related to the Whitethroat, as their common names imply. It was suggested that the two species separated in the last ice age similar to the pattern found in the Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler, with their ancestor being forced into two enclaves, one in the southeast and one in the southwest of Europe. When the ice sheets retreated, the two forms supposedly no longer recognised each other as the same species. However, scientists researching this question have for quite some time realized that these two taxa are not particularly close relatives.

Rather, the Lesser Whitethroat and its closest relatives Hume's Whitethroat and the Small Whitethroat appear more related to a group of morphologically quite dissimilar species. These vary much in size and color pattern, but also lack chestnut wing patches and have a strong contrast between the usually dark head sides and the white or whitisch throat. The latter group occurs from the southern parts of the Lesser Whitethroat complex' range into Africa and include the Orphean Warbler group, the Arabian Warbler, and the Brown and Yemen Warblers sometimes placed in Parisoma. Thus, it rather appears as if the divergence of the Lesser Whitethroat complex and its closest living relatives is more ancient than assumed, and that it did not involve separation by ice sheets building up in Europe, but by aridification of the Arabian region (which also occurred throughout the Ice Ages).

The Lesser Whitethroat complex has been split up into the present species, Hume's Whitethroat, and the Small Whitethroat from which the Margelanic Whitethroat may also be specifically distinct. In this superspecies, the Lesser Whitethroat seems to form the basal European lineage. Only two subspecies are nowadays unequivocally recognized for the Lesser Whitethroat, and they intergrade throughout Central Europe:

• Sylvia curruca curruca – Western Lesser Whitethroat – western parts of range
• Sylvia curruca blythi – Northeastern Lesser Whitethroat – eastern parts of range. Has somewhat paler top of head, separated from face sides by white supercilium.

Two more taxa occur in the intergradation zone with the Small Whitethroat, stretching from the northern Caspian Sea area into Mongolia. The phylogeny of these is not well-researched, and they might eventually turn out to belong to either species or be stereotyped hybrids:

• Sylvia curruca/minula halimodendri
• Sylvia curruca/minula telengitica

Similarly, Sylvia curruca caucasica is intermediate between the Lesser and Hume's Whitethroats.

A bird which wintered at Landsort Bird Observatory, Sweden, differed in the analyzed mtDNA sequences from all known taxa in the complex, although it most closely resembled halimodendri in the field. As mtDNA is inherited from the mother only, were this bird a hybrid this should have been recognizable.

>Sylvia nisoria (Barred Warbler)

Barred Warbler

Barred Warbler
Adult male, Poland
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Sylviidae
Genus:	Sylvia
Species:	S. nisoria
Binomial name
Sylvia nisoria (Bechstein, 1792, central and northern Germany)

The Barred Warbler (Sylvia nisoria) is a typical warbler which breeds across temperate regions of central and eastern Europe and western and central Asia. This passerine bird is strongly migratory, and winters in tropical eastern Africa.

Immature on migration, England

It is the largest Sylvia warbler, 15.5–17 cm in length and weighing 22–36 g, mainly grey above and whitish below. Adult males are dark grey above with white tips on the wing coverts and tail feathers, and heavily barred below. The female is similar but slightly paler and has only light barring. Young birds buffy grey-brown above, pale buff below, and have very little barring, with few obvious distinctive features; they can easily be confused with Garden Warblers, differing in the slight barring on the tail coverts and the pale fringes on the wing feathers, and their slightly larger size. The eye has a yellow iris in adults, dark in immatures; the bill is blackish with a paler base, and the legs stout, grey-brown.

Taxonomy

Within the genus Sylvia it is highly distinctive; the barred underside is shared only with the Cyprus Warbler, which has black barring and an entirely different overall colour pattern. The Barred Warbler seems to represent an ancient lineage of Sylvia warblers on its own and does not appear to have any particularly close relatives in the genus.

Two subspecies are recognised. The nominate Sylvia nisoria nisoria occurs over most of the species' range, while Sylvia nisoria merzbacheri occurs at eastern end of the range in central Asia. The latter is marginally paler and less heavily barred than the nominate subspecies, but they are barely distinct and intergrade where the ranges meet. Some authors consider them synonymous.

Ecology

The Barred Warbler is a bird of open country with bushes for nesting, with very similar habitat preferences to the Red-backed Shrike. The nest is built in low shrub or brambles, and three to seven eggs are laid. Like most warblers, it is mainly insectivorous, but also takes berries and other soft fruit extensively in late summer and autumn. Its song is a pleasant chattering like a Garden Warbler with many clear notes, but is harsher and less melodious, and slightly higher pitched, with some resemblance to the Whitethroat's song.

Occurrence

The European population is estimated at around 460,000 pairs. It has declined in some areas, particularly at the western end of its breeding range in Denmark (where it is now extinct as a breeding bird) and Germany, due to habitat loss from agricultural intensification; conversely, some increase has occurred in Ukraine and southern Finland. Further east, numbers are currently stable. Population densities range between 1–20 pairs per 10 ha in Germany, up to 30 pairs per 10 ha recorded in Kazakhstan.

Barred Warblers are regular on autumn passage as far west as Great Britain (typically 100-200 records annually), where it occurs mainly on the east coast between late August and late October, and more rarely to Ireland (around 10–20 records annually); spring passage records in Britain are very rare (1–3 per decade). The vast majority of British and Irish records are of first-year birds, with adults occurring only exceptionally rarely.

>Sylvia borin (Garden Warbler)

Garden Warbler

Garden Warbler
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Sylviidae
Genus:	Sylvia
Species:	S. borin
Binomial name
Sylvia borin (Boddaert, 1783, France)

The Garden Warbler (Sylvia borin) is a common and widespread typical warbler which breeds throughout northern and temperate Europe into western Asia. This small passerine bird is strongly migratory, and winters in central and southern Africa. It is fairly common and widespread in England and Wales; in Ireland it is largely confined to the midlands where it breeds on the shores of small lakes.

This is a nondescript bird, 13–14.5 cm long, mainly brown-grey above and whitish below. It has no obvious distinctive features. Like most "warblers", it is insectivorous. It is a species of shady woodlands with ground cover for nesting. The nest is built in low shrub or brambles, and 3–7 eggs are laid.

The Garden Warbler's  song (help·info) is a pleasant chattering with many clearer notes like a Blackbird. The song can be confused with that of Blackcap, but is more melodious and lacks the warbling end-phrase found in Blackcap songs. Indeed, despite their dissimilar colour pattern, these two species are probably more closely related to each other than to any other typical warbler (The Sylvia Monograph, A & C Black, London; Jønsson & Fjeldså 2006). The composer Olivier Messiaen, who admired birdsong, used the song of S. borin as basis for his 1971 work La fauvette des jardins, the title being the French name of the species. The beccafico, or fig-eater, a much prized delicacy in Italy, is not as sometimes thought the Garden Warbler but the closely related Orphean Warbler.

>Sylvia atricapilla (Eurasian Blackcap)

Eurasian Blackcap

Eurasian Blackcap
Adult male
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Sylviidae
Genus:	Sylvia
Species:	S. atricapilla
Binomial name
Sylvia atricapilla (Linnaeus, 1758, Sweden)

The Eurasian Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) usually known simply as the Blackcap, is a common and widespread sylviid warbler which breeds throughout temperate Europe, western Asia (east to about 85°E) and northwestern Africa, and winters from northwestern Europe south to tropical Africa. Its colour pattern is unique in the genus Sylvia; the Eurasian Blackcap's closest living relative is the Garden Warbler which looks different but has a fairly similar song. These two, whose ranges extend farther northeastwards than most other Sylviaspecies (except for Lesser Whitethroat and Common Whitethroat), seem to form sister species well distinct from the other typical warblers.

Description

It is a robust typical warbler, mainly grey in plumage. Like most Sylvia species, it has distinct male and female plumages: The male has the small black cap from which the species gets its name, whereas in the female the cap is brown. It is a bird of shady woodlands with ground cover for nesting. The nest is built in a low shrub, and 3–6 eggs are laid. The song is a pleasant chattering with some clearer notes; it can be confused with that of the Garden Warbler, but in the Eurasian Blackcap, it is slightly higher pitched, more broken into discrete individual songs (more continuous rambling song in Garden Warbler) and characteristically ends with an emphatic fluting warble. In isolated Eurasian Blackcap populations (such as in valleys or on peninsulas and small islands), a simplified song can occur; this song is said to have a Leiern-type ("drawling") ending after the term used by German ornithologists who first described it. The introduction is like that in other Blackcaps, but the final warbling part is a simple alteration between two notes, as in a Great Tit's call but more fluting.

Systematics

Five subspecies are accepted:

• Sylvia atricapilla atricapilla. Breeds Europe (except Mediterranean area), northwestern Asia; winters northwestern Europe south to tropical western Africa.
• Sylvia atricapilla gularis (syn. S. a. atlantis). Breeds and winters Azores and Cape Verde.
• Sylvia atricapilla heineken (syn. S. a. obscura). Breeds and winters Madeira, Canary Islands, southwestern Iberia, and (?) Morocco, Algeria.
• Sylvia atricapilla pauluccii. Breeds and winters eastern Iberia, Italy, western Mediterranean islands, and (?) Tunisia.
• Sylvia atricapilla dammholzi. Breeds southwestern Asia; winters tropical eastern Africa.

The variation is minimal and largely clinal, making subspecific boundaries hard to define. S. a. heineken and S. a. gularis are prone to melanism on the Atlantic Islands, but only exceptionally on the European mainland; melanistic birds have the whole head and upper breast black in males, and females and the rest of the body in males darker grey-brown. The exact distribution of S. a. heineken is unclear; as well as the Canary Islands (from where it was described) and Madeira, birds from the Atlantic coasts of Iberia and northwest Africa may also be referrable to it. The melanistic birds, morph obscura, were at first considered a distinct subspecies.

Behaviour

This small passerine bird is partially migratory; central and northern European breeders winter in southern Europe and north Africa, where the local populations are resident. It is hardier than most warblers, partly because it will readily eat small berries as well as the more typical warbler diet of insects.

In recent years, substantial numbers of central European birds have taken to wintering in gardens in Great Britain, Ireland, the Benelux countries, and even southern Scandinavia, migrating northwest or north, instead of southwest. Presumably the ready availability of food, particularly from bird tables, and the avoidance of migration over the Alps and the Sahara Desert compensate for the sub-optimal climate. Bearhop et al. (2005) reported that German birds wintering in England tend to mate only among themselves, and not usually with those wintering in the Mediterranean or western Africa. This is because the short-distance migrants arrive back from the wintering grounds for breeding earlier than birds wintering around the Mediterranean, and form pairs before Mediterranean-wintering birds arrive. The authors point out that division of a population by different migration routes can be a first step towards speciation.The increasing populations have been traced to a tiny population of Eurasian Blackcaps caught in Germany which exhibited a tendency to migrate in a north-westerly direction (instead of the majority that migrate southwards across the Alps to Africa) - the combination of more food and milder temperatures in Britain means that the birds that migrate from Germany to Britain are now apparently at an advantage over those migrating south. It has been postulated that they are spared the long flight to and from Africa and their overwinter survival rate may be relatively high and they may also gain better breeding grounds and territories as they return earlier in the spring than the birds that winter in Africa. This recent change has been related to the recent environmental changes in Britain as the Blackcap populations wintering in Britain did not have this survival advantage and hence the populations were much smaller.

Cultural references

The presence and sounds of this bird have since long inspired Italian writers. "La Capinera" (Italian for Blackcap) is the title of one of the most famous poems by Giovanni Pascoli. Storia di una capinera  is a 1993 movie directed by Franco Zeffirelli and distributed with the international title "Sparrow". The Blackcap is considered a delicacy in some Mediterranean countries where many are illegally trapped and killed every year.The Blackcap's call symbolises St Francis in Messiaen's opera, Saint-François d'Assise.

Gallery illustrating various views and plumages

• 

  Adult male
 
• 

  Male gathering nesting material
 
• 

  Adult female

>>Genus Sylvia (Typical warbler)

Typical warbler

Typical warblers
From top (males in front): Lesser Whitethroat (Sylvia curruca) Common Whitethroat (Sylvia communis) Garden Warbler (Sylvia borin)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Sylviidae
Genus:	Sylvia Scopoli, 1769
Species
See text
Synonyms
Parisoma Swainson in Richardson, 1832

The typical warblers are small birds belonging to the genus Sylvia in the "Old World warbler" (or sylviid warbler) family Sylviidae. There are 28 species currently included in the genus, including five species formerly treated in the genus Parisoma, a treatment which left Sylvia paraphyletic.Typical warblers occur in the temperate to tropical regions of Europe, western and central Asia, and Africa, with the highest species diversity centred around the Mediterranean.

They are strongly built, with stouter legs and a slightly thicker bill than many other warblers, and range in size from 11 cm length and 7 g weight (African Desert Warbler) up to 17 cm length and 36 g weight (Barred Warbler). The plumage is based around varying shades of grey and brown, usually darker above and paler below, with bluish or pinkish tones in several species; several also have orange-brown or rufous fringed wing feathers. The tail is square-ended in most, slightly rounded in a few, and in several species has white sides. Many of the species show some sexual dimorphism, with distinctive male and female plumages, with the males in many having black or bright grey on the heads, replaced by brown, brownish-grey or similar dusky colours in females; about a third of the species also have a conspicuous red eye ring in males. Species breeding in cool temperate regions are strongly migratory, while most of those in warmer regions are partially migratory or resident. They are active warblers usually associated with open woodland, scrub, hedges or shrubs. Their diet is largely insectivorous, though several species also eat fruit extensively, mainly small berries such as elder and ivy, particularly from late summer to late winter; one species (Blackcap) also frequently takes a wide variety of human-provided foods on birdtables in winter.

Systematics

The typical warblers are now known to form a major lineage in a clade containing also the parrotbills and some taxa formerly considered to be Old World babblers. The other "Old World warblers" have been moved to their own families, entirely redelimiting the Sylviidae. Because of their distinctness, the Sylvia group might be considered a subfamily Sylviinae, but several Old World warblers are pending restudy with the new data. In particular the relationship to the African Hill Babbler (Pseudoalcippe abyssinica) and the Chinese Hill Warbler (Rhopophilus pekinensis) are not entirely resolved but certainly more distant.

The genus as currently circumscribed includes the following species:

• Eurasian Blackcap Sylvia atricapilla
• Garden Warbler Sylvia borin
• Barred Warbler, Sylvia nisoria
• Lesser Whitethroat Sylvia curruca
• Desert Whitethroat Sylvia minula
• Hume's Whitethroat Sylvia althaea
• Orphean Warbler Sylvia hortensis
  • Eastern Orphean Warbler Sylvia hortensis crassirostris
• Arabian Warbler Sylvia leucomelaena
• Asian Desert Warbler Sylvia nana
• African Desert Warbler Sylvia deserti
• Common Whitethroat Sylvia communis
• Dartford Warbler Sylvia undata
• Marmora's Warbler Sylvia sarda
• Balearic Warbler Sylvia balearica
• Tristram's Warbler Sylvia deserticola
• Spectacled Warbler Sylvia conspicillata
• Subalpine Warbler Sylvia cantillans
• Sardinian Warbler Sylvia melanocephala
• Menetries's Warbler Sylvia mystacea
• Rüppell's Warbler Sylvia rueppelli
• Cyprus Warbler Sylvia melanothorax
• Yemen Warbler Sylvia buryi – formerly placed in Parisoma
• Brown Parisoma Sylvia lugens – formerly placed in Parisoma
• Banded Parisoma Sylvia boehmi – formerly placed in Parisoma
• Chestnut-vented Warbler Sylvia subcaerulea – formerly placed in Parisoma
• Layard's Warbler Sylvia layardi – formerly placed in Parisoma

The relationships between all the species are not yet fully resolved;the list above follows the IOC list order.