Plain Prinia

Prinia inornata Sykes, 1832

≈12 cmLength7 gWeight

In the breeding season, this small bird has gray-rufous upperparts and a short white supercilium; it has a rather long tail and often hides in grass and scrub.

Busiest months: November–February · Most records: China, India, Thailand

Least Concern

How to identify

Field marks

Gray-rufous back in breeding plumage
Short, white supercilium
Rufous feather edges on the folded wing in breeding plumage
Rather long tail; short bill, black in the breeding season

Male, female and young

The sexes are identical in appearance; in winter plumage, the upperparts are tinged with warm rufous, the belly is rufous-tinged and the tail is longer.

Voice

A repeated “tlee-tlee-tlee”.

Where and when it's recorded

Plain Prinia has been recorded at 1,312 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 13 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

Taipei – Tianliaoyang WetlandTaiwan (China)5,584 records
Changaram Wetlands – EzhupunnaIndia4,198 records
Huajiang IBA – Huajiang Wild Duck Nature Park (Huajiang to Zhongxing Bridge)Taiwan (China)3,688 records

More places

Mai Po Nature ReserveHong Kong (China)3,220 records
Bharatpur – Keoladeo Ghana NPIndia2,542 records
Aogu Wetland IBATaiwan (China)2,247 records
KattampallyIndia2,040 records
Hoskote / Hosakote KereIndia2,012 records
Baruipur MarshesIndia1,945 records
GKVK CampusIndia1,940 records

Countries and regions with the most records

China India Thailand Sri Lanka Cambodia Laos Bangladesh Vietnam

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The plain prinia (Prinia inornata), also known as the plain wren-warbler or white-browed wren-warbler, is a small cisticolid warbler found in Southeast Asia. It is a resident breeder from Pakistan and India to south China and southeast Asia. It was formerly included in the tawny-flanked prinia (Prinia subflava), resident in Africa south of the Sahara.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions

How big is the Plain Prinia?

The Plain Prinia is about ≈12 cm long and weighs around 7 g.

Where does the Plain Prinia live?

Its breeding range: Oriental: northeastern Afghanistan to eastern China and Vietnam; disjunctly Java. It is most often recorded in China, India and Thailand.