Cettiidae is a newly validated

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of small

insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant which eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores we ...

songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 5,00 ...

s (" warblers"), formerly placed in the

Old World warbler The Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird family Sylviidae. They are not closely related to the New World warblers. The family held over 400 species in over 70 genera, and were the source of much taxo ...

wastebin A waste container, also known as a dustbin, rubbish bin, trash can, garbage can, wastepaper basket, and wastebasket, among other names, is a type of container intended to store waste that is usually made out of metal or plastic. The words "r ...

" assemblage. It contains the typical bush warblers ('' Cettia'') and their relatives. As a common name, cettiid warblers is usually used. Some taxonomic authorities include this entire family, along with the related genera ''

Erythrocercus ''Erythrocercus'' is a genus of birds containing three flycatchers that are found in Africa. The genus is placed in its own family (biology), family Erythrocercidae that was introduced by Silke Fregin and collaborators in 2012. Species The ge ...

'' and '' Scotocerca'', in an enlarged family Scotocercidae. Its members occur mainly in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, ranging into

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. The pseudo-tailorbirds, tesias and stubtails, as well as '' Tickellia'' and '' Abroscopus'' warblers, are mostly found in the forests of south and southeastern Asia, with one species of stubtail reaching as far north as Japan and Siberia. Only one species, Neumann's warbler (''Hemitesia neumanni''), occurs in Africa. The range of the genus '' Cettia'' extends west to Western Europe, while that of '' Horornis'' extends well into the Pacific, as far as

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

and

Palau Palau, officially the Republic of Palau, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the western Pacific Ocean. The Republic of Palau consists of approximately 340 islands and is the western part of the Caroline Islands ...

. Most of the species in the family are sedentary, but the Asian stubtail is wholly migratory and the

Japanese bush warbler The Japanese bush warbler (''Horornis diphone''), known in Japanese as (), is an Asian passerine bird more often heard than seen. Its distinctive breeding song can be heard throughout much of Japan from the start of spring. Description The J ...

and

Cetti's warbler Cetti's warbler (''Cettia cetti'') is a small, brown bush-warbler which breeds in southern and central Europe, northwest Africa and the east Palearctic as far as Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan. The sexes are alike. The bird is named after ...

are partly migratory over much of their range. A few species, such as the pale-footed bush warbler, are altitudinal migrants. The

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

are small, stubby birds. Most have moderately long to long tails, while the stubtails and tesias have tiny tails that do not even emerge past their tail coverts. The group is typically clad in dull plumage, often with a line above the eye, but some are more colorful. Altogether the Cettiidae are a quite variable group containing many aberrant birds that hitherto had been uncomfortably placed with a wide range of unrelated families. The

Locustellidae Locustellidae is a recently recognised family of small insectivorous songbirds (" warblers"), formerly placed in the Old World warbler " wastebin" family. It contains the grasshopper warblers, grassbirds, and the '' Bradypterus'' " bush war ...

, which contain birds which appear very similar to many cettiids, are far more uniform by contrast. Most live in scrubland and frequently hunt food by clambering through thick tangled growth.

Taxonomy

The family Cettiidae was introduced by

Per Alström ''Per'' Johan Alström (born 9 April 1961) is a Swedish Professor of ornithology. He does research in Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, systematics, and evolution, with birds in Asia as a specialty. Alström works at the Department of Ecology and Genet ...

and coworkers in 2006. The following cladogram showing the family relationships is based on a study by Carl Oliveros and coworkers published in 2019. The number of species is taken from the bird list maintained by Frank Gill,

Pamela Rasmussen Pamela Cecile Rasmussen (born October 16, 1959) is an American ornithology, ornithologist and expert on Asian birds. She was formerly a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and is based at the Michigan State Uni ...

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). The phylogenetic relationships between the eight genera were determined in a 2011 study by Per Alström and coworkers. The family contains 31 species in eight genera.

References

Sources

* del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew & Sargatal, Jordi (eds.) (2006): '' Handbook of Birds of the World'' (Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers). Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. * Sefc, K.M.; Payne, R.B. & Sorenson, M.D. (2003): Phylogenetic relationships of African sunbird-like warblers: Moho ''Hypergerus atriceps'', Green Hylia ''Hylia prasina'' and Tit-hylia ''Pholidornis rushiae''. ''Ostrich'' 74(1-2): 8-17
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{{Taxonbar, from=Q222432 Bird families Taxa named by Per Alström Taxa named by Per G.P. Ericson Taxa named by Per Sundberg (ornithologist) Taxa named by Urban Olsson