Family Old World Warblers and Parrotbills (Sylviidae)
Least Concern
Beijing Hill-warbler (Rhopophilus pekinensis)
Taxonomy
French: Rhopophile de Pékin German: Pekinggrasmücke Spanish: Timalí pekinés
Other common names:
Beijing Babbler,
Chinese Hill-warbler, Chinese Bush-dweller (when lumped with R. albosuperciliaris)
Taxonomy:
Drymoeca (?) pekinensis
Swinhoe
, 1868,Beijing, China
.Distribution:
C & NE China (SE Qinghai and C & S Gansu E to Shaanxi and NE Sichuan, and from S Inner Mongolia and Liaoning S to SW Henan and NE Hubei) and North Korea.
Descriptive notes
15–16 cm. Small passerine resembling a cisticolid warbler, with graduated tail very long (half of bird’s total length), plumage pale grey and sandy with heavy... read more
Voice
Not adequately documented. Song described as a sweet continuous “dear, dear, dear”,... read more
Habitat
Dry stony scrub, bush-covered hill slopes, tamarisks, long grass with scattered trees (including... read more
Food and feeding
No information on diet; presumably invertebrates. Forms flocks outside breeding season, sometimes associating with babblers. Forages in... read more
Breeding
Season May. Nest a substantial deep cup of soft grasses, thickly bound with strips of grass, reinforced externally with cobweb, cocoons and... read more
Movements
Resident, with some apparent winter displacements, e.g. to parts of South Korea.
Status and conservation
Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Uncommon within comparatively large range. Around Beidaihe, in E China (S Liaoning), numbers may have increased from 1940s to 1980s,... read more
Until recently considered conspecific with R. albosuperciliaris (which see). Proposed race leptorhynchus (from E Qinghai and Gansu) rather weakly defined; recent review#R supports treatment as synonym. Monotypic.