Parrotbill

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Parrotbills

Panurus biarmicus

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Paradoxornithidae

Genera

Panurus
Conostoma
Paradoxornis

The parrotbills are traditionally a small family of Old World passerine birds, Paradoxornithidae (or Panuridae in some systems). They are related to the Old World babblers, but in general appearance and behaviour are more like the tits. More recently biochemical studies have connected them (not Panurus) to a clade within the Old World Babbler family alongside Sylvia etc.^[1] The Bearded Tit is apparently only distantly related to babblers and parrotbills, occupying a basal position (near Larks) in the Sylvioid clade.^[2]

The bills of these birds are short, heavy and laterally compressed, like a parrot's, hence the English name.

These are mostly birds of tropical southeast Asia, although the Bearded Tit is a bird of reedbeds in temperate Eurasia.

These are birds of open habitats, reedbeds and bamboo stands. This group is not strongly migratory, although the Bearded Tit can be eruptive.

The species are:

Family: Paradoxornithidae

Genus Panurus
- Bearded Tit, or Bearded Reedling, Panurus biarmicus
Genus Conostoma
- Great Parrotbill, Conostoma oemodium
Genus Paradoxornis
- Brown Parrotbill, Paradoxornis unicolor
- Grey-headed Parrotbill, Paradoxornis gularis
- Three-toed Parrotbill, Paradoxornis paradoxus
- Black-breasted Parrotbill, Paradoxornis flavirostris
- Spot-breasted Parrotbill, Paradoxornis guttaticollis
- Spectacled Parrotbill, Paradoxornis conspicillatus
- Vinous-throated Parrotbill, Paradoxornis webbianus
- Brown-winged Parrotbill, Paradoxornis brunneus
- Ashy-throated Parrotbill, Paradoxornis alphonsianus
- Grey-hooded Parrotbill, Paradoxornis zappeyi
- Rusty-throated Parrotbill, Paradoxornis przewalskii
- Fulvous Parrotbill, Paradoxornis fulvifrons
- Black-throated Parrotbill, Paradoxornis nipalensis
- Golden Parrotbill, Paradoxornis verreauxi
- Short-tailed Parrotbill, Paradoxornis davidianus
- Black-browed Parrotbill, Paradoxornis atrosuperciliaris
- Rufous-headed Parrotbill, Paradoxornis ruficeps
- Reed Parrotbill, Paradoxornis heudei

[edit] References

^ Cibois, A. 2003. Mitochondrial DNA Phylogeny of Babblers (Timaliidae). The Auk 120 :1-20.
^ Alström, P.; Ericson, P.G.P.; Olsson, U.; Sundberg, P. (2006): Phylogeny and classification of the avian superfamily Sylvioidea. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 38: 381-397.