The Grey-breasted Prinia, Prinia hodgsonii, is a small warbler. This prinia

Prinia

The prinias are a genus of small insectivorous birds belonging to the passerine bird family Cisticolidae. They are often also alternatively classed in the Old World warbler family, Sylviidae. The name of the genus is derived from the Javanese prinya, the local name for the Bar-winged Prinia.The...

 is a resident breeder in the India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n subcontinent, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 and southeast Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

.
This skulking passerine

Passerine

A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...

 bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

 is typically found in open woodland, scrub jungle, and other open areas with some grass. Grey-breasted Prinia builds its nest in tall grass and lays 3–4 eggs.

These 11 to 13 cm (4.3 to 5.1 in) long warblers have short rounded wings, a longish tail, strong legs and a short black bill. In breeding plumage, adults are grey-brown above, with no supercilium, a black eye stripe and orange eyering. They have a rufous wing panel. Grey-breasted Prinia's underparts are white with a grey breast band. The sexes are identical.

Non-breeding birds have browner upperpart plumage and a white supercilium

Supercilium

The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head. Also known as an "eyebrow", it is distinct from the eyestripe, which is a line which runs...

, but lack the breast band. Young birds are like non-breeding adults but more rufous above. There are a number of subspecies. The distinctive greyer endemic

Endemic (ecology)

Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...

 race in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

, P. h. leggei, retains summer-type plumage all year round.

Like most warblers, Grey-breasted Prinia is insectivorous. The song is a repetitive chiwee-chiwee-chiwee-chip-chip-chip.