''Geositta'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the

ovenbird The ovenbird (''Seiurus aurocapilla'') is a small songbird of the New World warbler family (biology), family (Parulidae). This bird migration, migratory bird breeds in eastern North America and winters in Central America, many List of Caribbean ...

family, Furnariidae. They are known as miners (not to be confused with the unrelated miners, ''

Manorina ''Manorina'' is a genus of Australian endemic honeyeaters, containing four species: the black-eared miner (''M. melanotis'') the yellow-throated miner (''M. flavigula''), the noisy miner (''M. melanocephala'') and the bell miner (''M. melano ...

'', of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

) due to the tunnels they dig for nesting. There are 11 species including the

campo miner The campo miner (''Geositta poeciloptera'') is a Vulnerable species of bird in the subfamily Sclerurinae, the leaftossers and miners, of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in Bolivia and Brazil, and as a vagrant in Paraguay.Remsen, J ...

(''Geositta poeciloptera'') which was formerly classified in a genus of its own, ''Geobates''. They inhabit open country in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, particularly the

Andean The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long and wide (widest between 18°S ...

and

Patagonian Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

regions. They are ground-dwelling birds, somewhat resembling the

lark Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark occ ...

s and

wheatear The wheatears are passerine birds of the genus ''Oenanthe''. They were formerly considered to be members of the thrush family, Turdidae, but are now more commonly placed in the flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. This is an Old World group, but ...

s of other continents. They are mostly drab brown in coloration and often have a fairly long and slender

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Pl ...

Taxonomy

The genus ''Geositta'' was introduced in 1837 by the English naturalist

William Swainson William Swainson Fellow of the Linnean Society, FLS, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855), was an English ornithologist, Malacology, malacologist, Conchology, conchologist, entomologist and artist. Life Swains ...

to accommodate a single species, ''Geositta anthoides'' which is therefore the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

monotypy In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

. Swainson formally described the type species in the following year in his ''Animals in Menageries''. The name ''Geositta anthoides'' is considered as a

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

of ''Alauda fissirostris'' which had been described in 1835 by the German naturalist

Heinrich von Kittlitz Friedrich Heinrich, Freiherr von Kittlitz (16 February 1799 – 10 April 1874) was a Prussian artist, naval officer, explorer and naturalist. He was a descendant of a family of old Prussian nobility ("Freiherr" meaning "independent lord" - ranking ...

. The taxon is now treated as a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of the

common miner The common miner (''Geositta cunicularia'') is a passerine bird in the subfamily Sclerurinae, the leaftossers and miners, of the ovenbird family (biology), family Furnariidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay ...

with the

trinomial name In biology, trinomial nomenclature is the system of names for taxa below the rank of species. These names have three parts. The usage is different in zoology and botany. In zoology In zoological nomenclature, a trinomen (), trinominal name, or t ...

''Geositta cunicularia fissirostris''. The genus name ''Geositta'' combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

γεω-/''geō-'' meaning "ground-" or "earth-" with the genus ''

Sitta The nuthatches () constitute a genus, ''Sitta'', of small passerine birds belonging to the family Sittidae. Characterised by large heads, short tails, and powerful bills and feet, nuthatches advertise their territory using loud, simple songs. Mo ...

'' that had been introduced for the

Eurasian nuthatch The Eurasian nuthatch or wood nuthatch (''Sitta europaea'') is a small passerine bird found throughout the Palearctic and in Europe. Like other nuthatches, it is a short-tailed bird with a long bill, blue-gray upperparts and a black eye-stripe. ...

in 1758 by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

. The following

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

showing the relationship between the species is based on a large

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study of the

suboscines The Tyranni (suboscines) are a suborder of passerine birds that includes more than 1,000 species, a large majority of which are South American. It is named after the type genus '' Tyrannus''. These have a different anatomy of the syrinx musculat ...

by Michael Harvey and collaborators that was published in 2020. A high resolution version of the phylogenetic tree in Figure 1 is available from the first author's websit
here

Species list

The genus contains 11 species:

References

Bird genera Taxa named by William Swainson {{Furnariidae-stub