Pallas's Warbler

Taxobox
name = Pallas's Warbler
status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1
status_ref = [IUCN2006|assessors=BirdLife International|year=2006|id=52594|title=Phylloscopus proregulus|downloaded=12 May 2006]


image_width = 240px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Passeriformes
familia = Phylloscopidae
genus = "Phylloscopus"
species = "P. proregulus"
binomial = "Phylloscopus proregulus"
binomial_authority = (Pallas, 1811)

:"For the Locustella warbler species occasionally referred to as Pallas's Warbler, see Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler

The Pallas's Warbler or Pallas's Leaf Warbler ("Phylloscopus proregulus") is a leaf warbler which breeds in southern Siberia, Mongolia and parts of Tibet and China. It is strongly migratory and winters in subtropical Asia.

This is a bird of coniferous mountain woodlands. The nest is built in a tree. Like most Old World warblers, this small passerine is insectivorous.

This tiny warbler is prone to vagrancy as far as western Europe in late October and November, despite a 3000 km distance from its breeding grounds. For example, this species occurs in late autumn in Great Britain regularly enough that it is not classified as rare there. Fact|date=July 2007

This is one of the smallest warblers, and shares greenish upperparts and off-white underparts with typical leaf warblers. However, this is a little jewel of a bird, with prominent double wing bars, supercilia and crown stripe, and a lemon-yellow rump.

This bird is not shy, but its arboreal life style makes it difficult to observe. It is constantly in motion, and often hovers briefly, like a kinglet. Its song is powerful and Canary-like.

The closely related southern species, Pale-rumped Warbler (or Lemon-rumped Warbler), "P. chloronotus", and Gansu Leaf Warbler, "P. kansuensis", move to lower latitudes in winter, but do not migrate long distances. The Simla Warbler is the westernmost subspecies "P. chloronotus simlaensis" which may be anything between a distinct species and invalid due to clinal variation (Alström 2006 [Alström, Per (2006): Species concepts and their application: insights from the genera "Seicercus" and "Phylloscopus". "Acta Zoologica Sinica" 52(Supplement): 429-434. [http://www.actazool.org/downloadpdf.asp?id=5099 PDF fulltext] ] ). These three or four species and the Chinese Leaf-warbler, "P. yunnanensis" (sometimes "P. sichuanensis") were until recentlyFact|date=February 2007 united in the Pallas' Warbler "sensu lato".

This bird is named after the German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas.

Note that the sixth edition of Clements checklist [Clements, James F. (2007) "The Clements checklist of birds of the world" Cornell University Press ISBN 978-0-8014-4501-9] refers to Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler, rather than this species, as "Pallas's Warbler".

References