CreatureData

Brown prinia

Prinia polychroa (Temminck, 1828)

LCLeast Concernsongbirds

The brown prinia (Prinia polychroa) is a species in the family Cisticolidae, order Passeriformes. Recorded adults weigh 11 g to 15 g. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Brown prinia (Prinia polychroa)
Photo: Nicolas Huet / Jean Gabriel Prêtre · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the brown prinia

Weight
11 g – 15 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Invertivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
grasslandsrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch
4src for Young per litter or clutch
Lifestyle
Perchingsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Sedentarysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

Where does the brown prinia live?

Not recorded

What is the brown prinia?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The brown prinia (Prinia polychroa) is a species of bird in the family Cisticolidae. The Burmese prinia (P. cooki) and the Annam prinia (P. rocki) were formerly lumped with this species.

It is found in mainland Southeast Asia, namely in most of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, as well as on the Indonesian island of Java. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forest. Populations in Myanmar, far western Thailand, far western Laos, and southern China are now considered to belong to P. cooki, while populations in the Đà Lạt Plateau of Vietnam and far eastern Cambodia are now considered to belong P. rocki.

There are two recognised subspecies: P. p. deignani, which is found in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, and P. p. polychroa, which is restricted to Java. P. p. deignani was formerly considered an eastern population of P. p. cooki (when it was considered a subspecies) until the 2019 study, which split the Burmese and south Chinese populations as P. cooki while reclassifying the Thai, Laotian, and Cambodian populations into a new subspecies, P. p. deignani. P. crinigera bangsi, now considered a subspecies of the Himalayan prinia (P. crinigera), was also formerly considered another south Chinese subspecies of P. polychroa (P. p. bangsi) until the 2019 study.

It was named after the American ornithologist Herbert Girton Deignan.

From the Wikipedia article “Brown prinia” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brown_prinia&oldid=1344531656), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the brown prinia endangered?

The brown prinia is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the brown prinia classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderPasseriformes
  5. familyCisticolidae
  6. genusPrinia
  7. SpeciesPrinia polychroa (Temminck, 1828)

Synonyms Decura caudata, Drymoica polychroa, Malurus polychrous

Other names and names in other languages (33)
  • Deignan's priniaEnglish
  • Deignan's priniaEnglish
  • prínia brunaCatalan
  • prinie hnědáCzech
  • prinia brownWelsh
  • Brun PriniaDanish
  • MalaienprinieGerman
  • Malaien-PrinieGerman
  • bruna prinioEsperanto
  • Prinia pardaSpanish
  • vuoripriiniaFinnish
  • hiekkapriiniaFinnish
  • Prinia des montagnesFrench
  • Perenjak coklatIndonesian
  • Prinia brunaItalian
  • ヤマハウチワドリJapanese
  • malajinė prinijaLithuanian
  • Maleise PriniaDutch
  • Deignans PriniaDutch
  • prinia smugowanaPolish
  • prínia-pardaPortuguese
  • prínia-castanhaPortuguese
  • Prínia-marromPortuguese
  • Бурая принияRussian
  • Малайская принияRussian
  • prinia hnedkaváSlovak
  • Smeđa prinijaSerbian
  • นกกระจิบหญ้าสีน้ำตาลThai
  • Kahverengi PrinyaTurkish
  • принія бураUkrainian
  • 褐山鷦鶯Chinese
  • 褐山鹪莺Chinese
  • 褐色山鷦鶯Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the brown prinia

Other species in the same genus Prinia.

LC, Least Concern
Ashy prinia (Prinia socialis)

Ashy prinia

Prinia socialis

Cisticolidae

CompareBrown prinia vs Plain priniaBrown prinia vs Ashy priniaBrown prinia vs Yellow-bellied priniaBrown prinia vs Graceful prinia

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the brown prinia?

An adult brown prinia weighs 11 g – 15 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the brown prinia endangered?

The brown prinia is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the brown prinia?

The brown prinia (Prinia polychroa) belongs to the family Cisticolidae in the order Passeriformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

Embed a card for this animal on your own site

Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.

Preview the card

APA

CreatureData. (2026). Brown prinia (Prinia polychroa). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-prinia

MLA

“Brown prinia (Prinia polychroa).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-prinia.

BibTeX
@misc{brown_prinia_2026,
  title = {Brown prinia (Prinia polychroa)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-prinia},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}