Rufous-crowned Prinia Prinia khasiana
Etymology:
- Prinia : Javanese name Prinya for the Prinia
- Khasiana: From Khasi Hills in India
Vernacular Name: Pahari: Chiburchay, Cachar: Daotisha dedao, Bhutan: Shikshillik
Distribution : Resident of Northeast India, from Meghalaya east to Nagaland.
Description : 16–18 cm. It is a large prinia with a slender, slightly decurved bill, and a long graduated and pointed tail. The breeding plumage is characterized by a rather weak whitish supercilium and a bold black throat bordered by a white submoustachial stripe which breaks up into dark scaling across the upper breast. The head and upperparts are rufescent. The non-breeding plumage is characterized by bright rufous upperparts, including tail and wings, brightest on forehead and edges to flight-feathers, with paler brown sides of head, almost lacking in throat or breast streaking, and has deep buff flanks and thighs.
Both the sexes are similar in plumage, but female differs in presence of white-spotted black chin and upper-throat feathers.
The juvenile is similar to fresh-plumaged adult, but is lighter brown above, washed light yellow below, with olive-gray breast-band but no more than hint of dark markings, and tail is shorter.
Habitat: It is found in Open grassy hillsides and mountainsides with scrubby cover and scattered shrubs, as well as scrubby forest clearings and bracken-covered hillsides and rank vegetation at the edges of villages, open pine forest, and terraced cultivation. It is found at 300–1,800 m in India.
Food habits: It eats insects and their larvae. It is normally encountered singly or in pairs, and usually very skulking, but forages also in noisy family parties. It feeds low down among grassy or tangled vegetation. It is hyperactive, with tail twitched up and down and even vibrated from time to time as it works its way through clumps of vegetation. If suddenly flushed, flies low and hesitantly for short distance before diving back into cover.
Breeding habits: They breed in Mar–Jun. The territories are well spaced. The nest built by both sexes, a globular construction with large side entrance, made of various grasses and flowering grass heads, mixed with small amounts of moss, usually well hidden in grassy clump, loosely attached to two or three grass stems. They lay a clutch of 3–5 eggs, The incubation is shared by both sexes for a period of 10 days. Both parents also tend the nestlings.