The genus is distributed in the Indian subcontinent and eastern Asia from northern China to Timor in the Lesser Sundas. Many of the more northerly species are migratory, breeding in temperate climates and wintering in the tropics; others are attitudinal migrants, moving down from the mountains in the winter. A few species are migratory over part of their range and resident in others.[3]
The Seicercus warblers are small passerines that range in size from 9.5 to 12 cm in length and weigh around 4-9 g.[3] All species have green wings and yellow bellies, most have yellow breasts as well. The head is either grey, green or buff/brown, and all species have stripes on the crown or face as well as a yellow or white eye-ring. The sexes are similar to each other.
Seicercus warblers feed on insects, usually obtained by gleaning and short sally flights.[3] A few species associate with mixed-species feeding flocks. Different species feed in different parts of the forest, some, like the chestnut-crowned warbler feed in the canopy whereas the Sunda warbler prefers the understory and lower canopy.
Grey-hooded warbler (Phylloscopus xanthoschistos) was formerly included in this genus.
Taxonomic note
The species known as golden-spectacled warblerSeicercus burkii (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) was split into S. burkii, S. valentini, S. whistleri, S. soror and S. tephrocephalus following Alström & Olsson (1999) and S. omeiensis following Martens et al. (1999).
References
^Alström, Per; Ericson, Per G.P.; Olsson, Urban; Sundberg, Per (2006). "Phylogeny and classification of the avian superfamily Sylvioidea". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 38 (2): 381–397. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.05.015. PMID16054402.
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