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Old World Warblers (Sylviidae)

White-spectacled Warbler (Seicercus affinis) - HBW 11, p. 675

French: Pouillot affin German: Silberbrillen-Laubsänger Spanish: Mosquitero de Anteojos
Other common names: Allied Warbler/Flycatcher-warbler

Taxonomy: Abrornis affinis F. Moore, 1854, Nepal (type specimen possibly from farther east in Himalayas).
Analyses of mitochondrial DNA suggest that this and S. poliogenys are sister-species; that these two form a clade together with S. burkii and S. tephrocephalus; and that some populations of race intermedius are more closely related to race ocularis than to other populations of their own race. Further, race ocularis is indistinguishable from nominate; recognized only provisionally, on basis of geographical isolation. Birds from E China (NW Fujian) described as race cognitus, but considered to represent a colour morph of intermedius. Three .. View all taxonomy...

Taxonomy: Abrornis affinis F. Moore, 1854, Nepal (type specimen possibly from farther east in Himalayas).
Analyses of mitochondrial DNA suggest that this and S. poliogenys are sister-species; that these two form a clade together with S. burkii and S. tephrocephalus; and that some populations of race intermedius are more closely related to race ocularis than to other populations of their own race. Further, race ocularis is indistinguishable from nominate; recognized only provisionally, on basis of geographical isolation. Birds from E China (NW Fujian) described as race cognitus, but considered to represent a colour morph of intermedius. Three subspecies tentatively recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

  • affinis (F. Moore, 1854) - E Himalayas from NE India (West Bengal E to SE Arunachal Pradesh, also Meghalaya, S Assam, Nagaland and Manipur) E to N Myanmar, possibly S China (SE Yunnan).
  • ocularis (Robinson & Kloss, 1919) - S Vietnam.
  • intermedius (La Touche, 1898) - C & SE China (Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Fujian, possibly also SE Yunnan).

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