Karoo prinia Karoo prinia The Karoo prinia or spotted prinia ("Prinia maculosa") is a small passerine bird. It is a resident breeder in South Africa, Lesotho and far southern Namibia. It is a species of karoo scrub, fynbos and bracken covered slopes in semi-desert and mountains. The former eastern subspecies "P. m. hypoxantha" is now usually considered to be a separate species, the Drakensberg prinia, "P. hypoxantha". The Karoo prinia is 13–15 cm long, with short rounded wings, a longish tail, strong legs and a short straight black bill. The head has a whitish eyebrow and the upperparts are otherwise brown. The
Gulf of Oman desert and semi-desert Gulf of Oman continuing along past Muscat to the beaches and dunes of the Ash Sharqiyah Region. From the Ras al Hadd point it runs south along the coast to the desert island of Masirah. It also includes an inland strip running along to the southwest of the Al Hajar Mountains. In the UAE it covers the plains around the Al Hajar mountains in the east, in the emirates of Dubai, Sharjah and Ras Al-Khaimah, and the country's Al Batinah coast around Fujairah. This dry ecoregion contains a mixture of habitats including mangrove swamps, lagoons and mudflats on the coast,