Pygmy Cupwing Pnoepyga pusilla, fulvous morph, Baihualing (25.301580, 98.793680), Gaoligong Mountains, Yunnan, China, elev. 1980 m (6,510 ft.), February. Pygmy Cupwing is smaller than Scaly-breasted Cupwing P. albiventer and has an unspeckled head and distinctive song. Pygmy Cupwing was formerly known as Pygmy Wren-babbler. The cupwings, four species in the genus Pnoepyga, are neither babblers (Timaliidae) nor Old World warblers (Sylviidae) and have been elevated to their own monogeneric family, Pnoepygidae (Gelang et al. 2009). (Craig Brelsford)Pygmy Cupwing, fulvous morph, Baihualing (25.305810, 98.796040), Gaoligong Mountains, Yunnan, elev. 1690 m (5,550 ft.), February. (Craig Brelsford)Pygmy Cupwing showing remarkably stubby tail area, Baihualing (25.301580, 98.793680), Gaoligong Mountains, Yunnan, elev. 1980 m (6,510 ft.), February. The cupwings are ‘tiny, semi-terrestrial birds,’ write Collar and Robson. ‘Their tails consist of six extremely short rectrices, usually concealed by long rump feathers’ (2007). (Craig Brelsford)Pygmy Cupwing showing unspeckled head, Baihualing (25.301580, 98.793680), Gaoligong Mountains, Yunnan, elev. 1980 m (6,510 ft.), February. (Craig Brelsford)
Pygmy Cupwing, three-note song, Old Erlang Road, Sichuan, China, June, by Craig Brelsford (0:12; 963 KB)
REFERENCES
Collar, N.J., and C. Robson. Family Timaliidae (Babblers). P. 76 in del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Christie, D.A., eds. (2007). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 12. Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
Gelang, M., G. P. Ericson, Alice Cibois, Eric Pasquet, Urban Olsson, and Per Alström (2009). Phylogeny of babblers (Aves, Passeriformes): major lineages, family limits and classification. Zoologica Scripta 38 (3), pp. 225–36.
