Grey-breasted Prinia

The grey-breasted prinia, or Franklin's prinia, is a wren-warbler 11–13cm long that often holds its tail upright. In breeding plumage it is smoky grey above with a rufous wing panel and buff-white below, and is easily told by a grey band across the breast contrasting with a white throat. Outside the breeding season it is olive-brown above with a weak white eyebrow and often no breast band. It has a short all-black bill, pink legs, an orange eye-ring and a graduated grey tail tipped white. It can be confused with the rufescent prinia (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a resident breeder of scrub, forest clearings and other open but well-vegetated habitats across the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka and South-east Asia. The sexes look alike in most populations, but in the Sri Lankan race the female has an incomplete breast band. In India it is resident across a very large range; SoIB 2023 finds its trends uncertain and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).