Banded prinia

Banded prinia
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Cisticolidae
Genus:	Prinia
Species:	P. bairdii
Binomial name
Prinia bairdii (Cassin, 1855)

The banded prinia (Prinia bairdii) is a species of bird in the family Cisticolidae. It is native to central Africa. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest.

Taxonomy

The banded prinia was formally described in 1855 by the American ornithologist John Cassin based on a specimen that had been collected by the French-American naturalist Paul Du Chaillu near the Mondah River in northwest Gabon. Cassin coined the binomial name Drymoica bairdii where the specific epithet was chosen to honour the naturalist and museum curator Spencer Fullerton Baird.[2][3] The banded prinia is now one of 29 species placed in the genus Prinia that was introduced by the American naturalist Thomas Horsfield in 1821.[4]

Four subspecies are recognised:[4]

• P. b. bairdii (Cassin, 1855) – southeast Nigeria to Congo and east to northeast DR Congo and west Uganda
• P. b. heinrichi Meise, 1958 – northwest Angola
• P. b. obscura (Neumann, 1908) – east DR Congo, west Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda
• P. b. melanops (Reichenow & Neumann, 1895) – east Uganda and west Kenya

The subspecies P. b. melanops and P. b. obscura have sometimes been considered as a separate species, the black-faced prinia.[4]

References

1. BirdLife International (2016). "Prinia bairdii". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22713647A94384871. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22713647A94384871.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
2. Cassin, John (1855). "Descriptions of new species of birds from Western Africa, in the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 7: 324-328 [327].
3. Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1986). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 11. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 150.
4. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (February 2025). "Grassbirds, Donacobius, tetrakas, cisticolas, allies". IOC World Bird List Version 15.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 15 March 2025.