Graceful Prinia Prinia gracilis Scientific name definitions

The Graceful Prinia occurs in the Middle East, western and southern Arabian Peninsula and northeast Africa. It is a small warbler, pale gray brown with thin blackish streaking above and whitish below, with a long, strongly graduated tail with whitish tips and dark subterminal bands (except to the central pair of feathers). It is found in dense vegetation, such as scrub and bushes (e.g., Tamarix), as well as in anthropogenic habitats such as gardens and agricultural fields, mainly in dry or semi-dry areas, but also neighboring wet areas, such as the edges of reedbeds (1 Shirihai, H. (1996). The Birds of Israel: A Complete Avifauna and Bird Atlas of Israel. Academic Press, London, UK. Close , 2 Shirihai, H., and L. Svensson (2018). Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds. Volume 2: Passerines: Flycatchers to Buntings. Bloomsbury, London, UK. Close ). It was previously considered to be conspecific with the Delicate Prinia (Prinia lepida) – under the name P. gracilis, but has been split based on genetic, vocal and morphological differences (3 Alström, P., P. C. Rasmussen, C. Xia, L. Zhang, C. Liu, J. Magnusson, A. Shafaeipour, and U. Olsson, (2021). Morphology, vocalizations, and mtDNA suggest the Graceful Prinia Prinia gracilis is two species. Ornithology 138:1–23. Close ).