Ashy-throated Parrotbill

This is a medium-sized tawny-coloured parrotbill with the large bill typical of these birds. The specific epithet commemorates the French ornithologist Alphonse Milne-Edwards. Formerly placed in a distinct parrotbill family Paradoxornithidae or with the Old World babblers in the Timaliidae or the tits and chickadees in the Paridae, they are now included with the typical warblers (Sylvia) in the Sylviidae. They might be less close to the great parrotbill (Conostoma oemodium) – which was also in the "Paradoxornithidae" – than to Chrysomma, or to the fulvettas (Fulvetta) which were often included in the wastebin genus Alcippe. Another relative might be the wrentit (Chamaea fasciata), the only known American member of the Sylviidae in the modern circumscription. The former two, and occasionally also the wrentit, were traditionally considered Old World babblers. Together with the other lineages of parrotbills, these and the golden-breasted fulvetta (Lioparus chrysotis) and species in the genus Rhopophilus form an Asian counterpart to the westward radiation of the typical warblers. Rather than two genera – Paradoxornis and the monotypic Conostoma – the parrotbills are better considered several independent lineages which show pronounced convergent evolution, due to adaptation to reedbed habitat and a more granivorous diet than their skulking warbler-like ancestor. In this case, the ashy-throated parrotbill would probably be assigned to genus Sinoparadoxornis.