Alcippe (bird)

Alcippe is a genus of passerine birds in the monotypic family Alcippeidae. The genus once included many other fulvettas and was previously placed in families Pellorneidae or Timaliidae.

Alcippe fulvettas
Mountain fulvetta (Alcippe peracensis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Superfamily:	Sylvioidea
Family:	Alcippeidae
Genus:	Alcippe Blyth, 1844
Type species
Alcippe poioicephala
Species
See text

Taxonomy

The genus Alcippe previously included many of the fulvettas, but recent taxonomy has seen the group progressively redefined. The Fulvetta fulvettas are now placed in family Paradoxornithidae, the bush blackcap in the genus Sylvia in the family Sylviidae, and, in the most recent revision, a group of seven species were transferred to the new genus Schoeniparus in family Pellorneidae. With the rearrangement of the species there are now birds with the common name "fulvetta" in three families: in the genera Lioparus and Fulvetta in Paradoxornithidae,^[1] Schoeniparus in Pellorneidae, and Alcippe in Alcippeidae.^[2]

The family Alcippeidae is sister to the family Leiothrichidae containing the laughingthrushes.^[3]

Pycnonotidae – bulbuls (167 species) Sylviidae – sylviid babblers (32 species) Paradoxornithidae – parrotbills and myzornis (38 species) Zosteropidae – white-eyes (152 species) Timaliidae – tree babblers (58 species) Pellorneidae – ground babblers (68 species) Alcippeidae – Alcippe fulvettas (10 species) Leiothrichidae – laughingthrushes and allies (133 species)

Phylogeny based on a study of the babblers by Cai and colleagues published in 2019.[2][3]

The genus contains the following ten species:^[2]

Image	Common Name	Scientific name	Distribution
	Brown fulvetta	Alcippe brunneicauda	Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand
	Brown-cheeked fulvetta	Alcippe poioicephala	Bangladesh, India and Southeast Asia.
	Javan fulvetta	Alcippe pyrrhoptera	Indonesia.
	Mountain fulvetta	Alcippe peracensis	Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam
	Black-browed fulvetta	Alcippe grotei	Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.
	Grey-cheeked fulvetta	Alcippe morrisonia	Taiwan.
	David's fulvetta	Alcippe davidi	southern China and northern Vietnam.
	Yunnan fulvetta	Alcippe fratercula	southern China, southeastern Myanmar and northern Indochina.
	Huet's fulvetta	Alcippe hueti	southeast China.
	Nepal fulvetta	Alcippe nipalensis	Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Japan, Myanmar, Nepal, and Taiwan.