Pnoepyga


Pnoepyga is a genus of passerines endemic to southern and south eastern Asia. Its members are known as cupwings or wren-babblers. The genus contains five species. The genus has long been placed in the babbler family Timaliidae. A 2009 study of the DNA of the families Timaliidae and the Old World warblers found no support for the placement of the genus in either family, prompting the authors to erect a new monogeneric family, the Pnoepygidae.
This genus of diminutive passerines has a mostly montane distribution in South and South East Asia. The scaly-breasted cupwing is found in the mountainous areas of north India eastwards to southern China and northern Vietnam. The Taiwan cupwing is endemic to Taiwan, and similarly the Nepal cupwing has a restricted distribution, mostly occurring in Nepal. The most widespread species is the pygmy cupwing, which occurs from China and India south through Southeast Asia into the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia as far as Flores and Timor.

Species

It contains the following species:
ImageCommon NameScientific nameDistribution
Scaly-breasted cupwing or scaly-breasted wren-babblerPnoepyga albiventer southern and eastern Asia from the Himalayas to Indochina.
Taiwan cupwing or Taiwan wren-babblerPnoepyga formosana Ingram, W, 1909Taiwan
Nepal cupwing or Nepal wren-babblerPnoepyga immaculata Martens, J & Eck, 1991Uttarakhand and Nepal.
Pygmy cupwing or pygmy wren-babblerPnoepyga pusilla Hodgson, 1845Himalayas to the Lesser Sunda Islands.
Chinese cupwing or Chinese wren-babblerPnoepyga mutica Thayer & Bangs, 1912southern-central China