Mimid

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(Redirected from
Mimidae
)

Mimids
Long-billed thrasher
Toxostoma longirostre
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Superfamily: Muscicapoidea
Family: Mimidae
Bonaparte
, 1853
Genera

Allenia

Cinclocerthia

Dumetella

Margarops

Melanoptila

Melanotis
Mimus
Oreoscoptes

Ramphocinclus

Toxostoma

The mimids are the

Turdidae).[1]

Description

There are over 30

monotypic genera. They tend toward dull grays and browns in their appearance, though a few are black or blue-gray, and many have red, yellow, or white irises. They range from 20 to 33 centimetres in length, and 36 to 56 grams in weight.[2] Many mimids have a rather thrush-like pattern: brown above, pale with dark streaks or spots below. They tend to have longer tails than thrushes (or the bigger wrens, which they also resemble) and longer bills that in many species curve downward.[3]

They have long, strong legs (for passerines) with which many species hop through undergrowth searching for arthropods and fruits to eat. Their habitat varies from forest undergrowth to scrub, high-altitude grasslands, and deserts. The two tremblers live in the atypical habitat of rainforests in the Lesser Antilles, and the brown trembler has the particularly atypical behavior of foraging while clinging to tree trunks.[3]

All known species build somewhat messy, bulky twig nests in dense growth, which are in most species on the ground or no more than 2 meters up. They usually lay 2 to 5 eggs that hatch in 12 or 13 days, which is also the length of time the chicks stay in the nest. Breeding usually starts in the spring or early in the rainy season, and many species can have two or even three broods per year. Most failures to fledge young are due to predation. Pairs often stay together for more than one breeding season.[3]

In the history of science

Contrary to often-held belief, the

Nesomimus mockingbirds may have played at least as great a role as Darwin's finches in inspiring Darwin's work on his theory of evolution.[4]

Systematics

Outside the family

basal
starlings (and Philippine creepers) and the North American range of the basal mimids.

They are sometimes united with the starlings in the Sturnidae as a

DNA-DNA hybridization
technique.

Within the family

The mockingbirds with some thrashers seem to form one major

paraphyletic catbird-Caribbean thrasher assemblage which consists of many rather basal lineages.[8][9]

For detailed information on the evolutionary relationships of the different mimid lineages, see their articles.

Mockingbirds:

New World catbirds
:

  • Genus
    Dumetella
     – grey catbird
  • Genus
    Melanoptila
     – black catbird

Thrashers:

  • Genus
    Oreoscoptes
     – sage thrasher
  • Genus Toxostoma – typical thrashers (10 species)
  • Genus
    Ramphocinclus
     – white-breasted thrasher
  • Genus
    Allenia
     – scaly-breasted thrasher (formerly in Margarops)
  • Genus
    Margarops
     – pearly-eyed thrasher

Tremblers

  • Genus
    Cinclocerthia
     (2 species)

References

  1. ^ "Mimic Thrush". encyclopedia.com. 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2023. From The Columbia Encyclopedia, sixth ed. (originally published 2000)
  2. ISBN 1-85391-186-0
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 1-55297-777-3
  4. ^ Curry, Robert L. (2003). Darwin and the mockingbirds of Galápagos. Archived 1 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^
    ISBN 0-300-04969-2
  6. ^
    PMID 16806992
    (HTML abstract)
  7. Passeri
    however.
  8. doi:10.1111/j.0908-8857.2004.03233.x
    (HTML abstract)
  9. DOI:10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118[0035:MSABOA]2.0.CO;2 HTML fulltext without images
  10. ^ American Ornithologists' Union, "Changes since 1 March 2005"

External links

Wikispecies has information related to Mimidae.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mimidae.
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