Subdesert Brush-Warbler Nesillas lantzii Scientific name definitions

17 cm. A pale grayish brush-warbler with long tail of twelve feathers. Top and side of head are pale grayish brown , with well-marked buffy-white supercilium , narrow white eyering, darker stripe through eye; upperparts and upperwing coverts pale grayish-brown, more ochraceous on rump and uppertail coverts; flight feathers and tail feathers dark gray-brown with grayish-buff edges; buffy white below, grayish flanks, short faint dusky streaks across breast; iris mid-brown; bill dull brown above, pale brown or pinkish with dusky tip below; tarsi dark bluish-gray. Sexes alike. Juvenile is duller than adult, more uniformly gray-brown.

Subdesert forest, Euphorbia forest and low coastal scrub; edge of lowland evergreen forest and degraded forest; sea-level to 500 m.

Sedentary.

Insects. Forages in low cover and understorey, alone or in pairs.

Call a series of sharp notes, and song a series of whistles; voice similar in structure to that of N. typica but higher-pitched and thinner, less grating.

Season Aug–Feb, mainly Oct–Dec. Nest close to ground in grass clump or bush; clutch 2 eggs. No other information.

Not globally threatened. Restricted-range species: present in South Malagasy Spiny Forests EBA. Common to locally very common in low arid subdesert of SW Madagascar.