South sea warblers

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South sea warblers
Stub beak

Stub beak

Systematics
Subclass : New-jawed birds (Neognathae)
Order : Passerines (Passeriformes)
without rank: Eupasseres
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
Superfamily : Meliphagoidea
Family : South sea warblers
Scientific name
Acanthizidae
Sundevall , 1872

The South Sea warblers (Acanthizidae) are a family of songbirds that include the gerygons , the thornbills and the genus Sericornis .

description

The South Sea warblers are small to medium-sized songbirds that reach a body length between 8 and 19 centimeters. They have small rounded wings, long legs, and a short tail. In most species, the plumage varies between olive, gray or brown; some of them have a light yellow color. The South Sea warblers are common ground dwellers and feed on insects or occasionally seeds. Exceptions are the weebill ( Smicrornis brevirostris ), walking in the forest canopy in search of food and stone Skitterer ( Origma solitaria ), which is a rock dwellers. What is unusual for birds of this size is that they only lay one or two eggs, which is probably due to their relatively long lifespan of over ten years in the wild.

distribution

The South Sea warblers occur in the Australasian and Pacific regions. Their distribution area extends from Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand to the southwestern Pacific. Most of the species are resident birds, with the exception of the gerygons.

Systematics

According to the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy (1990), the South Sea warblers were originally treated as the subfamily Acanthizinae within the panther bird family . Due to recent revisions (Christides & Boles 1994; Schodde & Mason 1999) this system is hardly supported today. In the current list of the Handbook of the Birds of the World (2007), the revisions were adopted and the South Sea warblers were henceforth regarded as an independent family Acanthizidae. The lacquer birds (Dasyornithidae), which were optionally treated as a subfamily Dasyornithinae within the families of the South Sea warblers or the panther birds, are now also considered an independent family (Schodde & Mason 1999).

Genera

The 13 genera and 65 species of the South Sea warblers were previously divided into the two subfamilies Sericornithinae and Acanthizinae (Schodde & Mason 1999). However, recent molecular genetic studies do not support the division into these two subfamilies. The current system (2018) is shown in the following list:

Genera and species (selection):

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stephen Garnett: In: Joseph Forshaw: Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds. Merehurst Press, London 1991, 197 pp. ISBN 1-85391-186-0 .
  2. ^ CG Sibley, JE Ahlquist: 'Phylogeny and Classification of Birds: A Study in Molecular Evolution.' Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, CT 1990, ISBN 978-0-300-04085-2 .
  3. ^ Leslie Christidis, Walter E. Boles: The taxonomy and species of Birds of Australia and its territories. RAOU Monograph 2, 1994, pp. 1-112.
  4. ↑ a b c Ian J.Mason and Richard Schodde: The Directory of Australian Birds: passerines. 1999. ISBN 978-0-643-06456-0
  5. ↑ Janet L. Gardner, John WHTrueman, Daniel Ebert, Leo Joseph, and Robert D. Magratha: Phylogeny and evolution of the Meliphagoidea, the largest radiation of Australasian songbirds . In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . June 2010, doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2010.02.005 , PMID 20152917 .
  6. ↑ J. Del Hoyo, A. Elliot, D. Christie (Eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World. ' Volume 12: 'Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions, 2007, ISBN 978-84-96553-42-2 .
  7. ↑ Our Taxonomy . In: J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, DA Christie & E. de Juana, E. (Eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive . Lynx Edicions, Barcelona ( hbw.com [accessed October 17, 2018]).

literature

  • Joseph Forshaw: Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds. Merehurst Press, London 1991. 197 pp. ISBN 1-85391-186-0 .
  • CG Sibley, JE Ahlquist: Phylogeny and Classification of Birds: A Study in Molecular Evolution. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, CT 1990, ISBN 978-0-300-04085-2 .
  • Leslie Christidis, Walter E. Boles : The taxonomy and species of Birds of Australia and its territories. RAOU Monograph 2, 1994, pp. 1-112.
  • Ian J. Mason, Richard Schodde : The Directory of Australian Birds: Passerines. 1999, ISBN 978-0-643-06456-0 .
  • J. Del Hoyo, A. Elliot, D. Christie (Eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 12: Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions, 2007, ISBN 978-84-96553-42-2 .

Web links

Commons : South Sea Warblers (Acanthizidae)  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files