Beijing Babbler

The Beijing babbler, Rhopophilus pekinensis, is also called the white-browed Chinese warbler or Chinese bush-dweller. Robert Swinhoe described it in 1868. Formerly moved among several warbler and babbler families, it is now placed near parrotbills in Paradoxornithidae. A field and museum review split the western Tarim babbler from the eastern Beijing babbler using morphological and vocal differences (Leader, Carey and Holt 2013).

It occurs chiefly in northern China and North Korea and is reported as formerly present in South Korea, using scrub and woodland. Historical Korean localities should therefore be retained but not treated automatically as evidence of a current population. Modern surveys need vocal and plumage documentation because the former broad species contained distinct taxa. No present Korean abundance or breeding claim is made without national field evidence (Leader et al. 2013; general species account).