Acanthizidae
| Acanthizidae | |
|---|---|
| |
| Brown thornbill (Acanthiza pusilla) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Superfamily: | Meliphagoidea |
| Family: | Acanthizidae Bonaparte, 1854[1][2] |
Genera
| |
|
15, see list | |
Acanthizidae—sometimes called Australian warblers—are a family of passerine birds which includes gerygones, thornbills Acanthiza, and scrubwrens Sericornis. The family Acanthizidae consists of small to medium passerine birds, with a total length varying between 8 and 19 centimetres (3.1 and 7.5 in). They have short rounded wings, slender bills, long legs, and a short tail. Most species have olive, grey, or brown plumage, although some have patches of a brighter yellow. The weebill is the smallest species of acanthizid, and the smallest Australian passerine; the largest is the pilotbird.
Taxonomy and systematics
Following the
Pardalotidae. The pardalotes are native to Australia.[3]
List of genera
The family contains 67 species divided in 15 genera.[4]
- Pachycare– Goldenface Pachycare flavogriseum
- Oreoscopus– Fernwren Oreoscopus gutturalis
- Acanthornis– Scrubtit Acanthornis magna
- Smicrornis– Weebill Smicrornis brevirostris
- Calamanthus – Fieldwrens (three species)
- Hylacola – Heathwrens (two species)
- Pycnoptilus– Pilotbird Pycnoptilus floccosus
- Pyrrholaemus – Redthroat and Speckled Warbler (two species)
- Origma – Rockwarbler and two species of Mouse-Warblers (three species)
- Neosericornis– Yellow-throated Scrubwren Neosericornis citreogularis
- Aethomyias – Scrubwrens and Bicoloured Mouse-warbler (six species)
- Sericornis – Scrubwrens (eight species)
- Gerygone – Gerygones (20 species including one now extinct)
- Acanthiza – Thornbills (14 species)
- Aphelocephala – Whitefaces (three species)
Distribution and habitat
Acanthizids are native to Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and the southwest Pacific. The greatest diversity is found in Australia, 35
endemic species, then New Guinea with 15. A species lives in Vanuatu, New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, and a further three in the New Zealand region, including endemic species in the Chatham Islands and Norfolk Island. In Asia two species are restricted to Indonesia and another is found in the Philippines and on mainland Asia. Most species are sedentary, except the gerygones. The family occupies a range of habitats from rainforests to arid regions.[citation needed
]
Behaviour and ecology
Most species are terrestrial, feeding primarily on insects, although also eating some seeds. In particular the
incubation periods, which rival those of large songbirds like the Corvidae.[5] Also, despite their long incubation period hatching is completely synchronous and within-brood mortality completely absent. Acanthizids are relatively long-lived, with many species living to over ten years of age in the wild[6] and cooperative breeding is found in the weebill and with a lesser degree of development in all whitefaces and most species of Sericornis[7] and Acanthiza.[8]
Status and conservation
Most taxa are considered as
Norfolk Island gerygone (Gerygone modesta) is vulnerable and the chestnut-breasted whiteface
(Aphelocephala pectoralis) is near threatened.
Gallery
-
White-browed scrubwren (Sericornis frontalis) -
Large-billed gerygone (Gerygone magnirostris) -
Brown gerygone (Gerygone mouki) -
Weebill (Smicrornis brevirostris) -
Speckled warbler (Chthonicola sagittatus) -
Shy heathwren (Hylacola cauta) -
Yellow thornbill (Acanthiza nana)
References
- ^ Bonaparte, Charles Lucien (1854). Notes Ornithologiques sur les Collections Rapportées en 1853, par M.A. Delattre, de son Voyage en Californie et dans le Nicaragua [et Classification Parallélique des Passereaux Chanteurs]. Vol. 37. Paris: Mallet-Bachelier.
- ^ Longmore, N. Wayne, ed. (5 Jan 2015). "Family ACANTHIZIDAE Bonaparte, 1854". Australian Biological Resources Study: Australian Faunal Directory. Australian Government: Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
- PMC 6475423.
- Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (July 2021). "Bristlebirds, pardalotes, Australasian warblers". World Bird List Version 11.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
- ISBN 9780306439902
- ISBN 1-85391-186-0.
- The Auk; 117(2), 479–489 (2000)
- ^ See “Old endemics and new invaders: alternative strategies of passerines for living in the Australian environment”
Further reading
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Acanthizidae.
Wikispecies has information related to Acanthizidae.
- Christidis, L., and W.E. Boles. 1994. The taxonomy and species of Birds of Australia and its territories. R.A.O.U. Monograph 2: 1–112.
- del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Christie D. (editors). (2007). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 12: Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-84-96553-42-2
- Mason, Ian J. & Schodde, Richard. 1999. The Directory of Australian Birds: Passerines. ISBN 978-0-643-06456-0
- Sibley, C.G., and J.E. Ahlquist. 1990. Phylogeny and Classification of Birds: A Study in Molecular Evolution. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, CT. ISBN 978-0-300-04085-2