Asian Desert Warbler

Open encyclopedia reference

The Asian desert warbler (Curruca nana) is an Old World warbler which breeds in the deserts of central and western Asia and the extreme east of Europe (Volga Delta area east to western Inner Mongolia in China), and migrating to similar habitats in southwestern Asia (Arabia to northwestern India) and the far northeast of Africa (Red Sea coastal regions) in winter. Until recently it was considered conspecific with the African desert warbler (and called just "desert warbler"), but is now given specific status. The two are still each other's closest living relatives, and their relationships to other typical warblers are not clear. They may be fairly close to the common whitethroat; particularly, female whitethroats look much like a richly coloured Asian desert warbler. But it seems that all these three taxa are fairly basal members of the genus. It is a small bird (the second-smallest in the genus after African desert warbler), 11.5–12.5 cm long.

Wikipedia contributors, Asian desert warbler; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T08:45:34.949859+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Curruca nana Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833

Name authority

Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833

Common name

Asian Desert Warbler

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Sylviidae

Genus

Curruca

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classAves
9. orderPasseriformes
10. familySylviidae Leach, 1820
11. genusCurruca Bechstein, 1802
12. speciesCurruca nana Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Curruca. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 21 records assigned to Sylviidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. Hemprich, Wilhelm Friedrich, & and Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. (1833). Symbolae Physicae Seu Icones et Descriptiones Avium Quae Ex Itinere per Africam Borealem et Asiam Occidentalem. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:DDBN6. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.