Alcippe (bird)

Alcippe fulvettas
Mountain fulvetta (Alcippe peracensis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Leiothrichidae
Genus: Alcippe
Blyth, 1844
Type species
Alcippe poioicephala (but see text)
Species

See text

Alcippe is a genus of passerine birds in the family Leiothrichidae. The genus once included many other fulvettas and was previously placed in families Pellorneidae, Timaliidae and Alcippeidae.

Taxonomy

The genus Alcippe was introduced in 1844 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth. He listed several species in the new genus but did not specify a type species.[1][2] In 1846 the English zoologist George Gray designated the type as Trichastoma affine Blyth, 1842, now the sooty-capped babbler Malacopteron affine which is placed in the ground babbler family Pellorneidae.[3] In spite of Gray's fixation the type was generally assumed to be Thimalia poioicephala Jerdon, the brown-cheeked fulvetta. In 1925 Harry C. Oberholser pointed out that Gray's designation of the type meant that under the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature the genus Malacopteron, should be called Alcippe and the name Alcippornis could be used for the species that were placed in Alcippe.[4] Oberholser's view was ignored and in 1964 Herbert G. Deignan erroneously stated in the Check-list of Birds of the World that Blyth had designated the type as Thimalia poioicephala Jerdon.[5] This same error was repeated in 2014 by Edward C. Dickinson and Leslie Christidis in the fourth edition of The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World.[6] The genus name Alcippe is attributed to a number of figures in Greek mythology.[2]

The genus Alcippe previously included many of the fulvettas, but recent taxonomy has seen the group progressively redefined. The Fulvetta fulvettas are now placed in family Paradoxornithidae, the bush blackcap in the genus Sylvia in the family Sylviidae, and, in the most recent revision, a group of seven species were transferred to the new genus Schoeniparus in family Pellorneidae. With the rearrangement of the species there are now birds with the common name "fulvetta" in three families: in the genera Lioparus and Fulvetta in Paradoxornithidae, Schoeniparus in Pellorneidae, and Alcippe in Leiothrichidae.[7] The genus Alcippe was an early split from the other genera in the family Leiothrichidae.[7][8]

Species

The genus contains the following ten species:[7]

Genus Alcippe – Blyth, 1844 – ten species
Common name Scientific name and subspecies Range Size and ecology IUCN status and estimated population
Brown fulvetta Alcippe brunneicauda
(Salvadori, 1879)

Two subspecies
  • A. b. brunneicauda (Salvadori, 1879)
  • A. b. eriphaea (Oberholser, 1922)
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 NT 


Brown-cheeked fulvetta

 Alcippe poioicephala
(Jerdon, 1841)

Seven subspecies
  • A. p. poioicephala (Jerdon, 1844[1841]) - Western Ghats and southern peninsular India
  • A. p. haringtoniae Hartert, 1909
  • A. p. fusca Godwin-Austen, 1876
  • A. p. alearis (Bangs and Van Tyne, 1930)
  • A. p. karenni Robinson and Kloss, 1928
  • A. p. davisoni Harington, 1915
Bangladesh, India and Southeast Asia. Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


Javan fulvetta

 Alcippe pyrrhoptera
(Bonaparte, 1850)

Two subspecies
 Indonesia. Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


Mountain fulvetta

 Alcippe peracensis
Sharpe, 1887 		Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


Black-browed fulvetta

 Alcippe grotei
Delacour, 1936

Two subspecies
 Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


Grey-cheeked fulvetta

 Alcippe morrisonia
R. Swinhoe, 1863 		Taiwan. Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


David's fulvetta

 Alcippe davidi
Styan, 1896

Two subspecies
 southern China and northern Vietnam. Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


Yunnan fulvetta

 Alcippe fratercula
Rippon, G, 1900

Three subspecies
 Southern China, southeastern Myanmar and northern Indochina. Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


Huet's fulvetta

 Alcippe hueti
David, 1874

Two subspecies
 southeast China. Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


Nepal fulvetta

 Alcippe nipalensis
(Hodgson, 1837)

Two subspecies
 Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Japan, Myanmar, Nepal, and Taiwan. Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


References

  1. ^ Blyth, Edward (1844). "Appendix to Mr. Blyth's report for December Meeting, 1842 (continued)". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 13 (149): 361–395 [392].
  2. ^ a b Jobling, James A. "Alcippe". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
  3. ^ Gray, George Robert (1849). The Genera of Birds : comprising their generic characters, a notice of the habits of each genus, and an extensive list of species referred to their several genera. Vol. 1. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans (published 1846). p. 209. The title page has 1849. For the publication date see Bruce, Murray D. (2023). "The Genera of Birds (1844–1849) by George Robert Gray: A review of its part publication, dates, new nominal taxa, suppressed content and other details". Sherbornia. 8 (1): 1–93 [18].
  4. ^ Oberholser, Harry C. (1925). "New Timaline birds from the East Indies". Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 74 (2): 1-13 [1].
  5. ^ Deignan, Herbert G. (1964). Mayr, Ernst; Paynter, Raymond A. Jr (eds.). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 10. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 397.
  6. ^ Dickinson, E.C.; Christidis, L., eds. (2014). The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. Vol. 2: Passerines (4th ed.). Eastbourne, UK: Aves Press. p. 537. ISBN 978-0-9568611-2-2.
  7. ^ a b c AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". doi:10.2173/avilist.v2025. Retrieved 23 November 2025.
  8. ^ Cai, T.; Cibois, A.; Alström, P.; Moyle, R.G.; Kennedy, J.D.; Shao, S.; Zhang, R.; Irestedt, M.; Ericson, P.G.P.; Gelang, M.; Qu, Y.; Lei, F.; Fjeldså, J. (2019). "Near-complete phylogeny and taxonomic revision of the world's babblers (Aves: Passeriformes)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 130: 346–356. Bibcode:2019MolPE.130..346C. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2018.10.010. PMID 30321696.
  • Collar, N. J. & Robson C. 2007. Family Timaliidae (Babblers) pp. 70 – 291 in; del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Christie, D.A. eds. Handbook of the Birds of the World, Vol. 12. Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
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