Prinia subflava
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The tawny-flanked prinia (Prinia subflava) is a small passerine bird belonging to the genus Prinia in the family Cisticolidae, a family of Old World warblers. It is widespread and common in most parts of Africa south of the Sahara. The plain prinia (P. inornata) of southern Asia was formerly included in this species but is now usually considered to be a separate species.
The tawny-flanked prinia was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the wagtails in the genus Motacilla and coined the binomial name Motacilla subflava. The specific epithet combines the Latin sub meaning "beneath" or "somewhat" with flavus meaning "yellow". Gmelin based his account on a hand coloured engraving by François-Nicolas Martinet that was published to accompany the Comte de Buffon's multi-volume work, the Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The tawny-flanked prinia is now one of 30 species placed in the genus Prinia that was introduced by the American naturalist Thomas Horsfield in 1821.
Ten subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brazzaville | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo | |
| 2 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 3 | Yaoundé | 🇨🇲 Cameroon | |
| 4 | Maputo | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 5 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Addis Ababa | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 8 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 9 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 10 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Tawny-flanked Prinia sighting in Lilongwe on a given day, based on 11 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 18th most-seen of the 52 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March, July and September
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Tawny-flanked Prinia in Lilongwe on a given day, against about 10% in April–June, August and November–February, the lowest months. Those are among Lilongwe's driest months, with about 50 mm of rain a month against 310 mm in January. October has too few records to rate.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Tawny-flanked Prinia sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
17th of 24
Of the 24 cities where we can rate Tawny-flanked Prinia sightings, Lilongwe ranks 17th at about 10%. The best odds are in Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo, about 60%), Mombasa (Kenya, about 40%) and Yaoundé (Cameroon, about 40%).
Same family: Cisticolidae
The closest relatives of the Tawny-flanked Prinia that you can see in Lilongwe (family Cisticolidae, Cisticolas and Allies) are Green-backed Camaroptera (about 10%), Singing Cisticola (about 10%) and Yellow-breasted Apalis (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Tawny-flanked Prinia is recorded against all the birds logged in Lilongwe (11 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
