Old World flycatcher

Old World flycatchers
Nilgiri Flycatcher, Eumyias albicaudata
Nilgiri Flycatcher, Eumyias albicaudata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Suborder: Passeri
Family: Muscicapidae
Vigors, 1825
Genera

See text.

The Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae is a large family of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World. These are mainly small arboreal insectivores, many of which, as the name implies, take their prey on the wing.

Contents

Characteristics

The appearance of these birds is very varied, but they mostly have weak songs and harsh calls. They are small to medium birds, ranging from 10 to 21 centimetres in length. Many species are a dull brown in colour, but the plumage of some can be much brighter, especially in the males. Most have broad, flattened, bill, suited to catching insects in flight, although the few ground foraging species typically have finer bills.[1]

Old World flycatchers live in almost every environment with a suitable supply of trees, from dense forest to open scrub, and even the montane woodland of the Himalayas. The more northerly species migrate south in winter, ensuring a continuous diet of insects.[1]

Depending on the species, their nests are either well-constructed cups placed in a tree or cliff ledge, or simply lining in a pre-existing tree hole. The hole-nesting species tend to lay larger clutches, with an average of eight eggs, rather than just two to five.[1]

Systematics

This article follows the Handbook of Birds of the World in including the small chat-like ground feeders previously classed with the Turdidae thrushes in this group. Recent biochemical studies place certain traditional thrush genera (Monticola, Myiophonus, Brachypteryx, and Alethe) here in the Muscicapidae. Conversely the Asian saxicoline genera Grandala and Cochoa belong among the thrushes.

The division of Muscicapidae into two subfamilies may be artificial. Some genera in one subfamily are closer to members of the other and vice-versa. As the exact relationships of the family's members are worked out the internal taxonomic structure of the family may need to be radically revised.

Muscicapidae in taxonomic order

This is a list of muscicapid species, presented in taxonomic order.

FAMILY: MUSCICAPIDAE

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Perrins, C. (1991). Forshaw, Joseph. ed.. Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds. London: Merehurst Press. pp. 194-195. ISBN 1-85391-186-0. 

External links