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Antbird

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iAntbirds
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Thamnophilidae
Genera

Many, see text.

The antbirds are a large family of smallish passerine bird species of subtropical and tropical Central and South America. They are closely related to the antthrushes and antpittas in the family Formicariidae, the tapaculos, and especially the gnatcatchers (Rice, 2005).

These are forest birds, but tend to feed on insects at or near the ground. A sizable minority of them specialize in following columns of army ants to eat the small invertebrates that leave hiding to flee the ants.

Many species lack bright colour; brown, black and white being the dominant tones in their appearance.

They lay two or three eggs in a nest in a tree, both sexes incubating.

Contents

[edit] Systematics

There are some 200 species, variously called as antwrens, antvireos, antbirds and antshrikes. These terms refer to the relative sizes of the birds (increasing in the order given) rather than any particular morphological resemblance to the true wrens, vireos or shrikes. The genus Phlegopsis is the bare-eyes, Pyriglena the fire-eyes and Neoctantes and Clytoctantes are the bushbirds.

Although the taxonomical layout of the group is based on studies from the mid-19th century when less than half the present species were known to science, comparison of the myoglobin intron 2, GAPDH intron 11 and the mtDNA cytochrome b DNA sequences (Irestedt et al., 2004) has largely verified it. Two major clades - most antshrikes and other larger, strong-billed species as well as Herpsilochmus versus the classical antwrens and other more slender, longer-billed species - exist and the monophyly of most genera was confirmed.

The Thamnophilidae contain several large or very large genera, and a considerable number of small or monotypic ones. Several of these, which have always been difficult to assign, seem to form a third, hitherto unrecognized clade independently derived from ancestral antbirds. The results also confirmed suspicions of previous researchers that some species, most notably in Myrmotherula and Myrmeciza, need to be assigned to different genera. Still, due to the difficulties of sampling from such a large number of often poorly known species, the assignment of some genera is still awaiting confirmation.

[edit] Subfamily N.N.: Basal antbirds

[edit] Subfamily Thamnophilinae: antshrikes and relatives

  • Genus Xenornis (pending confirmation of placement)

[edit] Subfamily N.N.: Typical antwrens and relatives

Tribe "Microrhopini"

Tribe Formicivorini

  • Genus Stymphalornis (pending confirmation of placement)

Tribe Pithyini

Tribe Myrmecizini

  • Genus Rhopornis (pending confirmation of placement)

[edit] Unassigned

[edit] References

[edit] External links

eo:Tamnofiledoj fr:Thamnophilidae hu:Hangyászmadárfélék ja:アリドリ科 (Sibley) pt:Thamnophilidae

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