Asity

Asities
	Yellow-bellied sunbird-asity
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Superfamily:	Eurylaimoidea
Family:	Philepittidae; Sharpe, 1870
Genera
	Philepitta; Neodrepanis

The asities are a family of birds, Philepittidae, that are endemic to Madagascar. The asities consist of four species in two genera. The Neodrepanis species are known as sunbird-asities and were formerly known as false sunbirds.^[1]

Philepitta is now the type-genus of a new bird family, the Philepittidae, into which the asities of Madagascar have been placed.^[2]

Description

Asities are small forest birds with sexually dichromic plumage and brightly coloured wattles around the eyes of the males. These wattles, which are most conspicuous during the breeding season, get their colour from arrays of collagen fibres.^[3] This method of pigmentation is unique in the animal kingdom. Several other features separate them from the broadbills, they possess twelve tail feathers on extremely short (almost non-existent in the Philepitta species) tails, their syrinx is encased with a large bronchial ring and they have forked tongues adapted to nectivory.^[4] They have a long outer primary which buzzes in flight, possibly used in signalling during courtship. The two genera are quite distinct.

Behavior and ecology

Diet and feeding

The major component of the diet of asities is fruit. A wide range of different fruit is taken by the family, and they are among the most important avian dispersers of seeds, as there are very few other frugivorous birds in the forests of Madagascar. They will also take insects. The Neodrepanis sunbird-asities will take nectar, but do so with a long tongue rather than inserting their curved bills far into flowers.

Breeding

Rainforest asities breed during the Malagasy

leks where they display to passing females.^[4] Nest building, incubation, and raising the young is done solely by the females. There are reports of male yellow-bellied sunbird-asities feeding young in the nest and recently fledged chicks, so there is clearly some variation in breeding strategies in the family. The nests of the family are elaborate; pear-shaped woven structures hanging from branches, similar to those of broadbills, although uniquely amongst birds which weave nests the entrance to the nest is created by pushing through the wall after constructed (instead of the usual scenario where the entrance is weaved into the fabric of the nest).^[4]

Status and conservation

One species, the

habitat loss and fragmentation. Schlegel's asity is considered near threatened; it has a highly fragmented distribution but numerous strongholds in inaccessible ravines.^[6]

Taxonomy and systematics

They were thought to have been related to the

Sapayoidae

.

Species

Image	Genus	Living Species
	Philepitta	Velvet asity, Philepitta castanea Schlegel's asity, Philepitta schlegeli
	Neodrepanis	Common sunbird-asity, Neodrepanis coruscans Yellow-bellied sunbird-asity, Neodrepanis hypoxanthus

References

ISBN 84-87334-50-4

ISBN 978-84-941892-0-3
.

PMID 29865414
.

^
ISBN 84-87334-50-4

^ BirdLife International (2007) ["BirdLife | Partnership for nature and people". Archived from the original on 2007-07-10. Retrieved 2012-11-15./datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=4042&m=0 Species factsheet: Neodrepanis hypoxantha]. Downloaded from "BirdLife | Partnership for nature and people". Archived from the original on 2007-07-10. Retrieved 2012-11-15. on 16/6/2007

^ BirdLife International (2007) ["BirdLife | Partnership for nature and people". Archived from the original on 2007-07-10. Retrieved 2012-11-15./datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=4040&m=0 Species factsheet: Philepitta schlegeli]. Downloaded from "BirdLife | Partnership for nature and people". Archived from the original on 2007-07-10. Retrieved 2012-11-15. on 16/6/2007

JSTOR 4088558
.

External links

Data related to Asity at Wikispecies

Asities videos on the Internet Bird Collection

Don Roberson's Bird Families of the World Archived 2008-07-24 at the Wayback Machine

Taxon identifiers
Philepittidae

Wikidata: Q756777

Wikispecies: Philepittidae

CoL: 6269S

GBIF: 9332

iNaturalist: 14207

IRMNG: 108518

ITIS: 178275

NCBI: 137529

Open Tree of Life: 991709

Authority control databases: National

Czech Republic

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Asity&oldid=1219597163"

[HBW8-1] ISBN 84-87334-50-4

[Winkler_et_al.-2] ISBN 978-84-941892-0-3
.

[prum-3] PMID 29865414
.

[Hawkins-4] 
ISBN 84-87334-50-4

[5] BirdLife International (2007) ["BirdLife | Partnership for nature and people". Archived from the original on 2007-07-10. Retrieved 2012-11-15./datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=4042&m=0 Species factsheet: Neodrepanis hypoxantha]. Downloaded from "BirdLife | Partnership for nature and people". Archived from the original on 2007-07-10. Retrieved 2012-11-15. on 16/6/2007

[6] BirdLife International (2007) ["BirdLife | Partnership for nature and people". Archived from the original on 2007-07-10. Retrieved 2012-11-15./datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=4040&m=0 Species factsheet: Philepitta schlegeli]. Downloaded from "BirdLife | Partnership for nature and people". Archived from the original on 2007-07-10. Retrieved 2012-11-15. on 16/6/2007

[7] JSTOR 4088558
.

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[6]