Old World Flycatcher
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The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small
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 ...
bird 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 ...
s restricted to the
Old World The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously ...
(
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,
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and
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), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica'') and northern wheatear (''Oenanthe oenanthe''), found also in North America. These are mainly small arboreal
insectivore file:Common brown robberfly with prey.jpg, A Asilidae, robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivore, carnivorous animal or plant which eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the Entomophagy ...
s, many of which, as the name implies, take their
prey Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not ki ...
on the wing. The family is relatively large and includes 357 species, which are divided into 57
genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...
.


Taxonomy

The name Muscicapa for the family was introduced by the Scottish naturalist John Fleming in 1822. The word had earlier been used for the genus '' Muscicapa'' by the French zoologist
Mathurin Jacques Brisson Mathurin Jacques Brisson (; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosophy, natural philosopher. Brisson was born on 30 April 1723 at Fontenay-le-Comte in the Vendée department of western France. Note that page 14 ...
in 1760. Muscicapa comes from the Latin '' musca'' meaning a fly, and '' capere'' to catch. In 1910, the German ornithologist Ernst Hartert found it impossible to define boundaries between the three families Muscicapidae, Sylviidae (Old World warblers) and Turdidae (thrushes). He therefore treated them as subfamilies of an extended flycatcher family that also included Timaliidae (Old World babblers) and Monarchidae (Monarch flycatchers). Forty years later, a similar arrangement was adopted by the American ornithologists
Ernst Mayr Ernst Walter Mayr ( ; ; 5 July 1904 – 3 February 2005) was a German-American evolutionary biologist. He was also a renowned Taxonomy (biology), taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, Philosophy of biology, philosopher of biology, and ...
and Dean Amadon in an article published in 1951. Their large family, Muscicapidae, which they termed the "primitive insect eaters" contained 1460 species divided into eight subfamilies. The use of the extended group was endorsed by a committee set up following the Eleventh International Ornithological Congress held in Basel in 1954. Subsequent
DNA–DNA hybridization In genomics, DNA–DNA hybridization is a molecular biology technique that measures the degree of genetic similarity between DNA sequences. It is used to determine the genetic distance between two organisms and has been used extensively in phylo ...
studies by Charles Sibley and others showed that the subfamilies were not closely related to one another. As a result, the large group was broken up into a number of separate families, although for a while most authorities continued to retain the thrushes in Muscicapidae. In 1998 the
American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...
chose to treat the thrushes as a separate family in the seventh edition of their ''Check-list of North American birds'' and subsequently most authors have followed their example.


Genera

The family formerly included fewer species. At the time of the publication of the third edition of Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World in 2003, the genera '' Myophonus'', '' Alethe'', '' Brachypteryx'' and '' Monticola'' were included in the thrush family Turdidae. Subsequent
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 ...
studies have shown that the species in these four genera are more closely related to species in Muscicapidae. As a consequence, these four genera are now placed here. In contrast, the genus '' Cochoa'' which was previously placed in Muscicapidae has been shown to belong in Turdidae. Two 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 ...
studies of species within Muscicapidae published in 2010 showed that the genera ''Fraseria'', ''Melaenornis'' and ''Muscicapa'' were non-monophyletic. The authors were unable to propose revised genera as not all the species were sampled and not all the nodes in their phylogenies were strongly supported. A subsequent study published in 2016, that included 37 of the 42 Muscicapini species, confirmed that the genera were non-monophyletic and proposed a reorganised arrangement of the species with several new or resurrected genera. The
International Ornithologists' Union The International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) is an international organization for the promotion of ornithology Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", ...
recognises 357 species and divides the family into 57 genera. Subdivisions have been proposed by Sangster ''et al'' (2010). For a complete list of species, see " List of Old World flycatcher species". Family Muscicapidae * Subfamily Muscicapinae ( Fleming, 1822) ** Tribe Copsychini (Sundevall, 1872) *** '' Alethe'' – alethes *** '' Tychaedon'' – scrub robins *** '' Cercotrichas'' – scrub robins *** '' Copsychus'' – magpie-robins or shamas ** Tribe Muscicapini (Fleming, 1822) *** ''
Agricola Agricola, the Latin word for farmer, may also refer to: People Cognomen or given name :''In chronological order'' * Gnaeus Julius Agricola (40–93), Roman governor of Britannia (AD 77–85) * Sextus Calpurnius Agricola, Roman governor of the m ...
'' *** '' Fraseria'' – forest flycatchers *** '' Melaenornis'' (7 species) *** ''
Namibornis The Herero chat (''Namibornis herero'') is a species of passerine bird belonging to the Family (biology), family Muscicapidae, the chats and Old World flycatchers. It is the only species in the monospecific genus ''Namibornis'' and it has a restr ...
'' – single species: Herero chat *** '' Empidornis'' – single species: silverbird *** '' Sigelus'' – single species: fiscal flycatcher *** '' Bradornis'' (3 species) *** '' Myornis'' – single species: Böhm's flycatcher *** '' Artomyias'' (2 species) *** '' Humblotia'' – single species: Humblot's flycatcher *** '' Muscicapa'' (17 species) * Subfamily Niltavinae (Sangster, Alström, Forsmark and Olsson, 2010) ** '' Leucoptilon'' – single species: white-tailed flycatcher ** '' Sholicola'' – sholakilis ** '' Niltava'' – niltavas ** '' Cyanoptila'' – flycatchers ** '' Eumyias'' – blue flycatchers ** '' Anthipes'' – flycatchers ** '' Cyornis'' – blue flycatchers * Subfamily Erithacinae ( G.R. Gray, 1846) – African forest robin assemblage ** '' Erithacus'' – single species: European robin ** '' Swynnertonia'' – single species: Swynnerton's robin ** '' Pogonocichla'' – single species: white-starred robin ** '' Stiphrornis'' – forest robins (3 species) ** '' Cossyphicula'' – robin-chats ** '' Chamaetylas'' – (4 species) ** '' Cossypha'' – robin-chats ** '' Cichladusa'' – palm thrushes ** '' Xenocopsychus'' – single species: Angola cave chat ** '' Dessonornis'' – robin-chats ** '' Sheppardia'' – akalats * Subfamily Saxicolinae ( Vigors, 1825) ** '' Irania'' – single species: white-throated robin ** '' Luscinia'' – nightingales and relatives ** '' Myiomela'' – robins ** ''
Calliope In Greek mythology, Calliope ( ; ) is the Muse who presides over eloquence and epic poetry; so called from the ecstatic harmony of her voice. Hesiod and Ovid called her the "Chief of all Muses". Mythology Calliope had two famous sons, OrpheusH ...
'' – rubythroats ** '' Enicurus'' – forktails ** '' Cinclidium'' – single species: blue-fronted robin ** '' Myophonus'' – whistling thrushes ** '' Heinrichia'' – single species: great shortwing ** '' Vauriella'' ** '' Leonardina'' – single species: Bagobo babbler ** '' Brachypteryx'' – shortwings ** ''
Larvivora ''Larvivora'' is a genus of small passerine birds belonging to the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae that occur in central and eastern Asia. The species in this genus were all previously classified in other genera. A large molecular phylo ...
'' – East and South-East Asian robins ** ''
Ficedula The ''Ficedula'' flycatchers are a genus of Old World flycatchers. The genus is the largest in the family, containing around thirty species. They have sometimes been included in the genus ''Muscicapa''. The genus is found in Europe, Asia and Afr ...
'' – flycatchers ** '' Tarsiger'' – bush robins and bluetails ** '' Heteroxenicus'' – single species: Gould's shortwing ** '' Phoenicurus'' – redstarts ** '' Monticola'' – rock thrushes ** '' Saxicola'' – stonechats and chats ** '' Campicoloides'' – single species: buff-streaked chat ** '' Emarginata'' ** '' Pinarochroa'' – single species: moorland chat ** '' Thamnolaea'' – single species: mocking cliff chat ** '' Myrmecocichla'' – chats ** '' Oenanthe'' – wheatears The
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 ...
below is based on a
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 family by Min Zhao and collaborators that was published in 2023. Some regions of the phylogenetic tree were not strongly supported by the sequence data. Both the genera included and the number of species in each genera are taken from the list of birds maintained by Frank Gill, Pamela C. Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the
International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) is an international organization for the promotion of ornithology. It links basic and applied research and nurtures education and outreach activities. Specifically, the IOU organizes and funds global co ...
(IOC).


Description

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 9 to 22 cm in length.del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Christie D. (editors). (2006). ''
Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. ...
''. Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers. Lynx Edicions. .
Many species are dull brown in colour, but the
plumage Plumage () is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, there can b ...
of some can be much brighter, especially in the males. Most have broad, flattened bills suited to catching insects in flight, although the few ground-foraging species typically have finer bills. 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
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. The more northerly species migrate south in winter, ensuring a continuous diet of insects. Depending on the species, their
nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold Egg (biology), eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of ...
s 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.


Notes


References


External links


Old World flycatcher videos
on the Internet Bird Collection * * {{Authority control * Taxa named by John Fleming (naturalist)