Sykes's Warbler

About the Sykes's Warbler

Sykes's warbler (Iduna rama) is an Old World warbler in the tree warbler family. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the booted warbler, but is now considered a full species. Its breeding range is from northeast Arabia to Turkestan, west China and Afghanistan. Like the booted warbler, many populations of the species migrate in winter to the Indian subcontinent as far south as Sri Lanka.

The English name commemorates the Colonel William Henry Sykes who served in the British military in India. Keyserling and Blasius gave no explanation of the genus name Iduna, though in Norse mythology Iðunn, or Iduna, is the goddess of spring and fertility who was changed into a sparrow to enable her rescue by Loki. The specific epithet rama refers to the Hindu god Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu.

Molecular phylogeny studies in 2009 suggested a clade sister to Chloropeta and separate from Hippolais in the strict sense resulting in the removal of this species from the genus Hippolais and placement in a resurrected older genus name of Iduna. There are differences in the nesting and egg morphology between rama and caligata.

It is a small passerine found... Wikipedia →