Malagasy warbler

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Malagasy warblers

The Long-billed Bernieria (Bernieria madagascariensis) was formerly placed in the Pycnonotidae

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Suborder:	Passeri
Family:	see text

Genera

Bernieria
Crossleyia
Cryptosylvicola
Hartertula
Oxylabes
Thamnornis
Xanthomixis

The Malagasy warblers are a newly validated clade of songbirds. They have not been formally named, although the name "Bernieriidae" (after the Long-billed Greenbul) has been informally used (Roberson 2006); accordingly, it must not be used without quotation marks or in any other way implying that it is a valid name. The family consists of ten species of small forest birds and is endemic to Madagascar.

The monophyly of this group has been proposed as early as 1934 (Salomonsen 1934). But the traditional assignments of these birds were maintained, mistaken by their convergent evolution and the lack of dedicated research. The families to which the Malagasy warblers were formerly assigned—Pycnonotidae (bulbuls) but especially Timaliidae (Old World babblers) and the Old World warbler—were used as "wastebin taxa", uniting unrelated lineages that were somewhat similar ecologically and morphologically.

It was not until the analysis of mtDNA cytochrome b and 16S rRNA (Cibois et al. 1999, 2001) as well as nDNA RAG-1 and RAG-2 exon (Beresford et al. 2005) sequence data, that the long-proposed grouping was accepted.

Formerly in Pycnonotidae (bulbuls)

Genus Bernieria – formerly in Phyllastrephus
- Long-billed Bernieria or Long-billed Greenbul, Bernieria madagascariensis
Genus Xanthomixis – formerly in Phyllastrephus; possibly polyphyletic
- Spectacled Tetraka or Spectacled Greenbul, Xanthomixis zosterops
- Appert's Tetraka or Appert's Greenbul, Xanthomixis apperti
- Dusky Tetraka or Dusky Greenbul, Xanthomixis tenebrosus
- Gray-crowned Tetraka or Gray-crowned Greenbul, Xanthomixis cinereiceps

Formerly in Sylviidae (Old World warblers)

Genus Thamnornis
- Thamnornis, Thamnornis chloropetoides
Genus Cryptosylvicola
- Cryptic Warbler, Cryptosylvicola randriansoloi

Formerly in Timaliidae (Old World babblers)

Genus Hartertula – formerly in Neomixis
- Wedge-tailed Jery, Hartertula flavoviridis
Genus Crossleyia
- Yellow-browed Oxylabes, Crossleyia xanthophrys
Genus Oxylabes
- White-throated Oxylabes, Oxylabes madagascariensis

Several of these species are very poorly known and were described by science only very recently. Appert's Tetraka was only described in 1972 and the Cryptic Warbler in 1996. The Appert's Tetraka, along with the Grey-crowned Tetraka and the Dusky Greenbul are threatened by habitat loss, and are listed as vulnerable.

Most Malagasy warblers live in the humid rainforests in the east of Madagascar, though a few species are found in the drier south west of the island. They feed on insects and will form mixed-species feeding flocks of up to six species while foraging.

[edit] References

Beresford, P.; Barker, F.K.; Ryan, P.G. & Crowe, T.M. (2005): African endemics span the tree of songbirds (Passeri): molecular systematics of several evolutionary 'enigmas'. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B 272(1565): 849–858. doi:10.1098/rspb.2004.2997 PDF fulltext Electronic appendix

Cibois, Alice; Pasquet, Eric; Schulenberg, Thomas S. & (1999): Molecular Systematics of the Malagasy Babblers (Passeriformes: Timaliidae) and Warblers (Passeriformes: Sylviidae), Based on Cytochrome b and 16S rRNA Sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 13(3): 581–595. doi:10.1006/mpev.1999.0684 (HTML abstract)

Cibois, Alice; Slikas, Beth; Shulenberg, Thomas S. & Pasquet, Eric (2001): An endemic radiation of Malagasy songbirds is revealed by mitochondrial DNA sequence data. Evolution 55(6): 1198–1206. DOI:10.1554/0014-3820(2001)055[1198:AEROMS]2.0.CO;2 PDF fulltext

Del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Christie D. (editors). (2006). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers. Lynx Edicions. ISBN 849655306X.