The hylocitrea (''Hylocitrea bonensis''), also known as the yellow-flanked whistler or olive-flanked whistler, is a species of
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
that is
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 els ...
to montane forests on the
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
n island of
Sulawesi.
[Boles, W. E. (2007). Yellow-flanked Whistler (Hylocitrea bonensis). pp. 411 in: Del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A., & Christie D. eds. (2007). '']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. ...
. Vol. 12. Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees.'' Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. It is
monotypic
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 "unispec ...
within the genus ''Hylocitrea'', and has traditionally been considered a member of the family
Pachycephalidae, but recent
genetic evidence suggests it should be placed in a monotypic subfamily of the family
Bombycillidae,
or even its own family, Hylocitreidae.
A 2019 study found it to be a
sister group
In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree.
Definition
The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram:
Taxon A and ...
to a clade containing the
hypocolius (Hypocoliidae) and the extinct
Hawaiian honeyeaters (Mohoidae), with the clade containing all three being a sister group to the
silky-flycatchers (Ptiliogonatidae). The divergences forming these families occurred in the early
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" ...
, about 20-23 million years ago.
References
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q10770215, from2=Q1585397, from3=Q10770216
Bombycilloidea
Birds described in 1894
Birds described in 1925
Endemic birds of Sulawesi
Extant Miocene first appearances
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot