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.

Sylviidae
Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Superfamily:	Sylvioidea
Family:	Sylviidae Leach, 1820
Genera
See text

Taxonomy and systematics

The scientific name Sylviidae was introduced by the English zoologist William Elford Leach (as Sylviadæ) in a guide to the contents of the British Museum published in 1820.^[1][2] The family became part of an assemblage known as the Old World warblers and was a wastebin taxon with over 400 species of bird in over 70 genera.^[3] Advances in classification, particularly helped with molecular data, have led to the splitting out of several new families from within this group. There is now evidence that these Sylvia "warblers" are more closely related to the Old World babblers than other warblers^[4]

A molecular phylogenetic study using mitochondrial DNA sequence data published in 2011 found that the species in the genus Sylvia formed two distinct clades.^[5] Based on these results, the ornithologists Edward Dickinson and Leslie Christidis in the fourth edition of Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World, chose to split the genus and moved most of the species into a resurrected genus Curruca, retaining only the Eurasian blackcap and the garden warbler in Sylvia. They also moved the African hill babbler and Dohrn's thrush-babbler into Sylvia.^[6] The split was not accepted by the British Ornithologists' Union on the grounds that "a split into two genera would unnecessarily destabilize nomenclature and results in only a minor increase in phylogenetic information content."^[7]

Pycnonotidae – bulbuls (167 species) Paradoxornithidae – parrotbills and myzornis (38 species) Sylviidae – sylviid babblers (32 species) Zosteropidae – white-eyes (152 species) Timaliidae – tree babblers (58 species) Pellorneidae – ground babblers (68 species) Alcippeidae – Alcippe fulvettas (10 species) Leiothrichidae – laughingthrushes and allies (133 species)

Phylogeny based on a study of the babblers by Cai and colleagues published in 2019.[8][9]

List of species

The family Sylviidae has undergone several revisions since the above phylogeny was published. As of August 2024, the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) recognizes these 32 species divided among two genera:^[10] This list is presented according to the IOC taxonomic sequence and can also be sorted alphabetically by common name and binomial.

Genus	Common name	Binomial name	IOC sequence
Sylvia Scopoli, 1769	Eurasian blackcap	Sylvia atricapilla	1
	Garden warbler	Sylvia borin	2
	Dohrn's warbler	Sylvia dohrni	3
	Abyssinian catbird	Sylvia galinieri	4
	Bush blackcap	Sylvia nigricapillus	5
	African hill babbler	Sylvia abyssinica	6
	Rwenzori hill babbler	Sylvia atriceps	7
Curruca Bechstein, 1802	Barred warbler	Curruca nisoria	8
	Layard's warbler	Curruca layardi	9
	Banded parisoma	Curruca boehmi	10
	Chestnut-vented warbler	Curruca subcoerulea	11
	Lesser whitethroat	Curruca curruca	23
	Brown parisoma	Curruca lugens	13
	Yemen warbler	Curruca buryi	14
	Arabian warbler	Curruca leucomelaena	15
	Western Orphean warbler	Curruca hortensis	16
	Eastern Orphean warbler	Curruca crassirostris	17
	African desert warbler	Curruca deserti	18
	Asian desert warbler	Curruca nana	19
	Tristram's warbler	Curruca deserticola	20
	Menetries's warbler	Curruca mystacea	21
	Rüppell's warbler	Curruca ruppeli	22
	Cyprus warbler	Curruca melanothorax	23
	Sardinian warbler	Curruca melanocephala	24
	Western subalpine warbler	Curruca iberiae	25
	Moltoni's warbler	Curruca subalpina	26
	Eastern subalpine warbler	Curruca cantillans	27
	Common whitethroat	Curruca communis	28
	Spectacled warbler	Curruca conspicillata	29
	Marmora's warbler	Curruca sarda	30
	Dartford warbler	Curruca undata	31
	Balearic warbler	Curruca balearica	32

Description

Sylviids are small to medium-sized passerine birds. The bill is generally thin and pointed with bristles at the base. Sylviids have a slender shape and an inconspicuous and mostly plain plumage. The wings have ten primaries, which are rounded and short in non-migratory species.^[3]

Distribution and habitat

Most species occur in Asia, and to a lesser extent in Africa. A few range into Europe.

References

1. Leach, William Elford (1820). "Eleventh Room". Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum. Vol. 17 (17th ed.). London: British Museum. pp. 66–67. The name of the author is not specified in the document.
2. Bock, Walter J. (1994). History and nomenclature of avian family-group names. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History Issue 222. pp. 152, 245. hdl:2246/830.
3. Bairlein, F.; Bonan, A. "Old World Warblers (Sylviidae)". In del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions. doi:10.2173/bow.sylvii1.01. S2CID 216447126. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
4. "SYLVIDS Sylviidae". Bird Families of the World. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
5. Voelker, Gary; Light, Jessica E. (2011). "Palaeoclimatic events, dispersal and migratory losses along the Afro-European axis as drivers of biogeographic distribution in Sylvia warblers". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 11 (163): 163. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-11-163. PMC 3123607. PMID 21672229.
6. Dickinson, E.C.; Christidis, L., eds. (2014). The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World, Volume 2: Passerines (4th ed.). Eastbourne, UK: Aves Press. pp. 509–512. ISBN 978-0-9568611-2-2.
7. Sangster, G.; et al. (2016). "Taxonomic recommendations for Western Palearctic birds: 11th report". Ibis. 158 (1): 206–212. doi:10.1111/ibi.12322.
8. Cai, T.; Cibois, A.; Alström, P.; Moyle, R.G.; Kennedy, J.D.; Shao, S.; Zhang, R.; Irestedt, M.; Ericson, P.G.P.; Gelang, M.; Qu, Y.; Lei, F.; Fjeldså, J. (2019). "Near-complete phylogeny and taxonomic revision of the world's babblers (Aves: Passeriformes)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 130: 346–356. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2018.10.010. PMID 30321696.
9. Gill, F.; Donsker, D.; Rasmussen, P., eds. (January 2023). "Sylviid babblers, parrotbills, white-eyes". IOC World Bird List. v 13.1. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
10. Gill, F.; Donsker, D.; Rasmussen, P., eds. (August 2024). "Sylviid babblers, parrotbills, white-eyes". IOC World Bird List. v 14.2. Retrieved August 20, 2024.