Stenostiridae, or the fairy flycatchers, are a family 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 are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

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 ...

s proposed as a result of recent discoveries in molecular systematics.Beresford ''et al.'' (2005) They are also referred to as stenostirid warblers.

Taxonomy and systematics

This new clade is named after the fairy flycatcher, a distinct species placed formerly in the

Old World flycatcher The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, Bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica)'' and North ...

s. This is united with the "sylvioid flycatchers": the genus ''Elminia'' (formerly placed in the Monarchinae) and the closely allied former Old World flycatcher genus ''Culicicapa'', as well as one species formerly believed to be an aberrant

fantail Fantails are small insectivorous songbirds of the genus ''Rhipidura'' in the family Rhipiduridae, native to Australasia, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Most of the species are about long, specialist aerial feeders, and named as ...

. * Genus '' Stenostira'' – fairy "warbler" or fairy "flycatcher" ** Fairy flycatcher, ''Stenostira scita'' * Genus ''

Elminia ''Elminia'' is a genus of bird in the flycatcher family Stenostiridae. The genus is endemic to Africa. It contains the following species: * African blue flycatcher (''Elminia longicauda'') * White-tailed blue flycatcher (''Elminia albicauda'') ...

'' (includes ''Trochocercus'') **

African blue flycatcher The African blue flycatcher or blue-crested flycatcher (''Elminia longicauda'') is a species of bird in the family Stenostiridae from western and central Sub-Saharan Africa. Description The African blue flycatcher is a dainty, pale, bright blu ...

, ''Elminia longicauda'' **

White-tailed blue flycatcher The white-tailed blue flycatcher (''Elminia albicauda'') is a species of bird in the family Stenostiridae. It is found in Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Its natural h ...

, ''Elminia albicauda'' ** Dusky crested flycatcher, ''Elminia nigromitrata'' ** White-bellied crested flycatcher, ''Elminia albiventris'' ** White-tailed crested flycatcher, ''Elminia albonotata'' * Genus '' Chelidorhynx'' (formerly in '' Rhipidura'') ** Yellow-bellied fantail, ''Chelidorhynx hypoxanthus'' * Genus '' Culicicapa'' ** Grey-headed canary-flycatcher, ''Culicicapa ceylonensis'' ** Citrine canary-flycatcher, ''Culicicapa helianthea'' Other African or Asian species might conceivably fall into this novel clade. The tit-flycatchers (''Myioparus'') are apparently true flycatchers morphologically somewhat convergent to ''Stenostira''. The Stenostiridae as a whole are related to penduline tits, titmice and chickadees. All these appear to be closer to the

Sylvioidea Sylvioidea is a superfamily of passerine birds, one of at least three major clades within the Passerida along with the Muscicapoidea and Passeroidea. It contains about 1300 species including the Old World warblers, Old World babblers, swallows, ...

than to other

Passerida Passerida is, under the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, one of two parvorders contained within the suborder Passeri (standard taxonomic practice would place them at the rank of infraorder). While more recent research suggests that its sister parvorde ...

, but this is not robustly supported by the available data and they might constitute a distinct, more

basal Basal or basilar is a term meaning ''base'', ''bottom'', or ''minimum''. Science * Basal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features associated with the base of an organism or structure * Basal (medicine), a minimal level that is nec ...

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

.Barker ''et al.'' (2004)

References

Footnotes

Sources

* Alström, Per; Ericson, Per G.P.; Olsson, Urban & Sundberg, Per (2006): Phylogeny and classification of the avian superfamily Sylvioidea. ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' 38(2): 381–397. * Barker, F. Keith; Cibois, Alice; Schikler, Peter A.; Feinstein, Julie & Cracraft, Joel (2004): Phylogeny and diversification of the largest avian radiation. ''

PNAS ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Scien ...

'' 101(30): 11040–11045. PDF fulltextSupporting information
* * Fuchs, J.; Fjeldså, J.; Bowie, R. C. K.; Voelker, G. & Pasquet, E. (2006): The African warbler genus ''Hyliota'' as a lost lineage in the oscine songbird tree: Molecular support for an African origin of the Passerida. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 39(1): 186–197. (HTML fulltext) * Jønsson, Knud A. & Fjeldså, Jon (2006): A phylogenetic supertree of oscine passerine birds (Aves: Passeri). '' Zool. Scripta'' 35(2): 149–186. (HTML abstract) {{Taxonbar, from=Q1073271