''Pitohui'' is a genus of birds

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...

. The birds formerly lumped together as

pitohui The pitohuis are bird species endemic to New Guinea. The onomatopoeic name is thought to be derived from that used by New Guineans from nearby Dorey (Manokwari), but it is also used as the name of a genus '' Pitohui'' which was established by the ...

s were found by a 2008 study that examined their evolutionary history on the basis of the genetic sequences to have included birds that were quite unrelated to each other. They have since been separated into other genera.

Taxonomy and systematics

The genus ''Pitohui'' was introduced in 1831 by the French naturalist René Lesson. Lesson omitted to specify the

type species In 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 species that contains the biological type specim ...

but this was designated as the northern variable pitohui by

Richard Bowdler Sharpe Richard Bowdler Sharpe (22 November 1847 – 25 December 1909) was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several mo ...

in 1877. The genus name is a Papuan word for the variable pitohui. The common group name

includes several species of birds that were all historically classified in the genus ''Pitohui''. But now they have been separated into three families and multiple genera. The genus ''Pitohui'' in its strict sense is now placed in the family Oriolidae, while the other pitohui genera have been placed in the families Oreoicidae and Pachycephalidae.

Species

Four

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

are recognized in the revised genus ''Pitouhi'':

Former species

Species that were formerly sometimes placed in the genus ''Pitohui'' include the following: * Crested pitohui (''Ornorectes cristatus,'' Family Oreoicidae, formerly placed as ''Pitohui cristatus'') * Black pitohui (''Melanorectes nigrescens,'' Family Pachycephalidae'','' formerly placed as ''Pitohui nigrescens'') * White-bellied pitohui (''Pseudorectes incertus,'' Family Pachycephalidae'','' formerly placed as ''Pitohui incertus'') * Rusty pitohui (''Pseudorectes ferrugineus,'' Family Pachycephalidae'','' formerly placed as ''Pitohui ferrugineus'') * Morningbird (''Pachycephala tenebrosa'', Family Pachycephalidae, formerly placed as ''Pitohui tenebrosus'' or as ''Colluricincla tenebrosa'')

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1066573 * Oriolidae Bird genera Endemic fauna of New Guinea Taxa named by René Lesson