Pnoepyga

Pnoepyga
Scaly-breasted Wren-babbler
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	see text
Genus:	Pnoepyga Hodgson, 1844

Pnoepyga is a genus of wren-babbler endemic to southern and south eastern Asia. The genus contains four 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 (Sylviidae) 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 Old World babblers has a mostly montane distribution in South and South East Asia. The Scaly-breasted Wren-babbler is found in the mountainous areas of north India eastwards to southern China and northern Vietnam. The Taiwan Wren-babbler is endemic to Taiwan, and similarly the Nepal Wren-babbler has a resricted distribution, mostly occurring in Nepal (and also slightly into India). The most widespread species is the Pygmy Wren-babbler, 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:

• Scaly-breasted Wren-babbler (Pnoepyga albiventer)
• Taiwan Wren-babbler (Pnoepyga formosana)
• Nepal Wren-babbler (Pnoepyga immaculata)
• Pygmy Wren-babbler (Pnoepyga pusilla)