Pnoepygidae – Wren-babblers (Cupwings)

Pnoepygidae is the small family to which Pnoepyga, a genus of passerines endemic to southern and south eastern Asia, belong. Its members are known as wren-babblers or cupwings.

The genus contains just four species formerly placed in the babbler family Timaliidae. A study (2009) of the DNA of the 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.

They are diminutive passerines with a mostly montane distribution in south and Southeast 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 or Taiwan Cupwing is endemic to Taiwan, and similarly the Nepal Wren-babbler or Nepal Cupwing has a restricted distribution, mostly occurring in Nepal (also slightly into India).

Pygmy Wren-babbler Pnoepyga pusilla – Nick Ludovioc Green Bird-Photo-Tours ASIA

The most widespread species is the Pygmy Wren-babbler or Pygmy Cupwing, which occurs from China and India south through Southeast Asia into the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia as far as Flores and Timor. The Chinese sub spaces has also been given for species status by some authorities, although the DNA evidence shows a minor variation more appropriate to a race; here we treat it as such not as a full species.

Scaly-breasted Wren-babbler Pnoepyga albiventer – Nick Ludovioc Green Bird-Photo-Tours ASIA

They are all tiny, almost tail-less, brown birds that inhabit the undergrowth of Southeast Asian forests. One of their Common names derives from the cup-like shape of their short, rounded wings, whose remiges have a strong camber-curvature toward the body. These stubby little birds hop, dart, and bound along the ground and up moss-covered branches a meter or so above ground in search of their prey, nervously flicking their wings as they go.

Their distinctive songs are sibilant warbles reminiscent of wrens and other small sylvioids, and as with most shy birds of dense undergrowth, the presence of cupwings along a path through their forest habitat is more often indicated by their calls, given their cryptic plumage and skulking behaviour.