Red-fronted prinia

The red-fronted prinia (Prinia rufifrons), also known as the red-fronted warbler and the red-faced apalis, is a species of bird in the family Cisticolidae. It is found in Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Its natural habitat is dry savanna.

Red-fronted prinia
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Cisticolidae
Genus:	Prinia
Species:	P. rufifrons
Binomial name
Prinia rufifrons Rüppell, 1840
Synonyms
Apalis rufifrons Spiloptila rufifrons Urorhipis rufifrons

Taxonomy

The red-fronted prinia was described by the German naturalist Eduard Rüppell in 1840 under the binomial name Prinia rufifrons. The type locality is Eritrea (the coastal region of Abyssinia).^[2][3] The specific epithet rufifrons comes from the Latin rufus for "red" and frons for "forehead" or "front".^[4]

There are three subspecies:^[5]

• P. r. rufifrons Rüppell, 1840 – Chad to northwest Somalia
• P. r. smithi (Sharpe, 1895) – southeast Sudan to central Somalia and north Tanzania
• P. r. rufidorsalis (Sharpe, 1897) – southeast Kenya

Many taxonomists place this species in the genus Prinia rather than in its own monotypic genus Urorhipis.^[6][7] Support for this alternative placement is provided by a molecular phylogenetic study of the Cisticolidae published in 2013 that found that the red-fronted warbler was closely related to the prinias.^[8]