Ashy-throated Parrotbill

The ashy-throated parrotbill (Suthora alphonsiana) is a parrotbill. In old sources, it may be called Alphonse's crow-tit; though superficially resembling a tit it is not a member of the Paridae. The native range of this species extends from south-west China to northern Vietnam, and it might have become naturalised in one area in Italy. == Description and systematics == 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 with the typical warblers (Sylvia) in the Sylviidae, the Old World babblers in the Timaliidae, or the tits and chickadees in the Paridae, they are now thought to belong to a distinct parrotbill family Paradoxornithidae. They might be less close to the great parrotbill (Conostoma oemodium) 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 Paradoxornithidae in the modern circumscription. The former two, and occasionally also the wrentit, were traditionally considered typical warblers or Old World babblers. Together with the other lineages of parrotbills, these and the golden-breasted fulvetta (Lioparus chrysotis) and species…