Gray-crowned Prinia Prinia cinereocapilla Scientific name definitions

11 cm; 6–8·5 g. A small, neatly proportioned and relatively short-tailed prinia with small and slim bill. In fresh plumage (non-breeding) has rufous forehead merging with ashy-grey crown and extending as narrow rufous supercilium back over eye, where it pales and diffuses behind eye, dark eyestripe (darkest on lores); grey of crown and nape suffuses into reddish-brown on mantle to uppertail-coverts, wings similarly rufous-brown with darker brown feather centres; tail grey-brown with rufous fringes, each feather with dusky subterminal bar and rufous-buff tip (really evident only on underside); ear-coverts dark grey, paling on lower cheek; throat and underparts buff, becoming richer buff on flanks and undertail-coverts; iris orange-brown; bill black; legs yellowish-flesh to yellowish-brown. In worn plumage (breeding) overall coloration a little duller, rufous on head disappears, and rusty tail tips either abrade or become very pale; eyes often pale yellowish. Differs from P. socialis (of race stewarti) mainly in having much shorter tail with rufous (not whitish) tips on underside, and rufous forehead and supercilium in non-breeding plumage. Sexes similar. Juvenile undescribed.

Foot of Himalayas from N India (W Uttarakhand) E, discontinuously, to Nepal and S Bhutan.

Favours edges of sal (Shorea) and mixed forests where Themeda grass (particularly T.arundinacea) abounds; found also in secondary growth around forest clearings, ridges of low hills and edges of plains. To 1600m.

Resident.

Food insects. Some individuals found with red pollen staining on the forehead suggestive of feeding on nectar, but more likely that they had received the pollen while searching flowers for insects. Seemingly more arboreal than other prinias, foraging quite high in small trees, but also descends to feed near ground in stands of grasses. Often associates with mixed parties of other small birds, such as various babblers (Timaliidae) and P. hodgsonii.

Song a prolonged, squeezed “cheeeeeeeeeeeesum-zip-zip-zip” or a rising trill followed by stretched “swe-e-e-e-e-chor”; also a series of 2 or 3 buzzy notes at differing pitches. Often located by trilling calls, given both in morning and in afternoon.

In Nepal, starts to sing in Jan, and individuals had well-developed brood patches in early Apr, indicating that breeding season well underway by then. No other information; earlier descriptions of nest and eggs based on a nest of doubtful authenticity.

VULNERABLE. Always considered to be rare or, at best, uncommon. Seems now to be in rapid decline through habitat loss. Many of this species’ former locations are no longer suitable owing to destruction of grassland and forest for agricultural use. It now has an extremely fragmented distribution along the terai and duar grasslands in Himalayan foothills. In India, known to be present in Corbett and Dudhwa National Parks, the latter adjoining the Bardia National Park (in Nepal); bulk of the population may be contained in Royal Chitwan National Park, in Nepal. Formerly occurred at a number of other sites in Nepal e.g. Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, from where it seems to have disappeared. Discovered in Bhutan as recently as May 1993, when found at three sites (Ada, Nashina and Tingtibi). The species may possibly be found in adjacent Arunachal Pradesh (NE India) if suitable habitat exists, although old records from Sikkim and N Cachar (SE Assam) are considered erroneous. Reported discovery of an isolated population in Pakistan (Margalla Hills) in 1985 has not been confirmed.