Drab Whistler

Drab Whistler belongs to bird in the family Pachycephalidae. The drab whistler was formally described in 1862 as Pachycephala griseonota by the English zoologist George Gray. The specific epiphet is from Medieval Latin griseum meaning "grey". The study did not sample the nominate P. g. griseonota nor the other subspecies. Its recorded distribution includes the Maluku Islands. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. (Wikipedia, general species account).

Gray mistakenly believed that his specimen had been collected on the island of Mysol which lies to the west of New Guinea. The locality has been corrected to the larger island of Seram. A molecular phylogenetic study by Serina Brady and collaborators published in 2021 compared nuclear sequences and found that P. g. johni was closely related to P. g. cinerascens. (Wikipedia, general species account).