The Philippine creepers or rhabdornises are 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 and form the
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 ...
''Rhabdornis''. They are
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...
to the
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
. They do not
migrate
Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration
* Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another
** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...
, other than to make local movements.
Taxonomy
The genus ''Rhabdornis'' was introduced in 1853 by German naturalist
Ludwig Reichenbach
Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach (8 January 1793 – 17 March 1879) was a German botanist, ornithologist and illustrator. It was he who first requested Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, Leopold Blaschka to make a set of glass marine invertebrate m ...
to accommodate the
stripe-headed rhabdornis. The name 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 ...
''rhabdos'' meaning "stripe" with ''ornis'' meaning "bird."
The relationship of the Philippine creepers to other bird species was formerly uncertain and the genus ''Rhabdornis'' was placed in its own family Rhabdornithinae.
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 revealed that the Philippine creepers are aberrant members of the starling family
Sturnidae.
The genus contains four species:
*
Stripe-headed rhabdornis, stripe-headed rhabdornis or stripe-sided rhabdornis, ''Rhabdornis mystacalis''
*
Grand rhabdornis, long-billed rhabdornis or grand rhabdornis, ''Rhabdornis grandis''
*
Stripe-breasted rhabdornis, plain-headed creeper or stripe-breasted rhabdornis, ''Rhabdornis inornatus''
*
Visayan rhabdornis, ''Rhabdornis rabori''
Description
The Philippine creepers are similar in appearance to
treecreeper
The treecreepers are a family, Certhiidae, of small passerine birds, widespread in wooded regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The family contains nine species in one genus, '' Certhia''. Their plumage is dull-coloured. As their name implies, they ...
s (Certhiidae). They have thin pointed down-curved bills, which they can use to extricate insects from bark, but they have brush-like tongues, which enable them to also feed on nectar.
References
External links
Don Robertson's Bird Families of the World Rhabornises. Contains photos of all 3 species. Version of 2006-JAN-25. Retrieved 2007-JUL-20.
Flickr Field Guide: Birds of the World Photo of ''Rhabdornis mystacalis''. Retrieved 2007-JUL-19.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2708026
Sturnidae
Endemic birds of the Philippines
Taxa named by Ludwig Reichenbach