''Turdoides'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

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 ...

birds in the laughingthrush family

Leiothrichidae The laughingthrushes are a family, Leiothrichidae, of Old World passerine birds. They are diverse in size and coloration. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The entire fami ...

. The species are distributed across

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and southern

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

and are typically fairly large, long-tailed birds which forage in noisy groups. The majority of species have drab brown or grey-brown plumage. Several species that were included in ''Turdoides'' in the past have been reassigned to '' Argya'' following a 2018 study that found multiple clades. The

''Turdoides'' was introduced in 1826 by the German physician

Philipp Jakob Cretzschmar Philipp Jakob Cretzschmar (11 June 1786 – 4 May 1845) was a German physician and natural scientist. Cretzschmar was born at Sulzbach and studied medicine at the University of Würzburg. He taught anatomy and zoology at the Senckenberg Medica ...

specifically for the

white-headed babbler The white-headed babbler or Cretzschmar's babbler (''Turdoides leucocephala'') is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae. It is found in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan. Its natural habitats are dry savanna and subtropical or tropical d ...

. The name combines the thrush genus '' Turdus'' with the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

''-oidēs'' meaning "resembling".

Species

The genus contains the following 19 species: * Brown babbler, ''Turdoides plebejus'' * Bare-cheeked babbler, ''Turdoides gymnogenys'' * Arrow-marked babbler, ''Turdoides jardineii'' * Scaly babbler, ''Turdoides squamulata'' *

White-rumped babbler The white-rumped babbler (''Turdoides leucopygia'') is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae. It is found in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan. Habitat In the mountains of Degua Tembien, the species is found in bushland, scrub ...

, ''Turdoides leucopygia'' *

White-headed babbler The white-headed babbler or Cretzschmar's babbler (''Turdoides leucocephala'') is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae. It is found in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan. Its natural habitats are dry savanna and subtropical or tropical d ...

, ''Turdoides leucocephala'' * Blackcap babbler, ''Turdoides reinwardtii'' *

Dusky babbler The dusky babbler (''Turdoides tenebrosa'') is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae. It is found in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Uganda. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist shrubland. Referen ...

, ''Turdoides tenebrosa'' * Southern pied babbler, ''Turdoides bicolor'' * Northern pied babbler, ''Turdoides hypoleuca'' *

Black-lored babbler The black-lored babbler or Sharpe's pied-babbler (''Turdoides sharpei'') is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae. It is found in southwestern Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and the part of the Democratic Republic of th ...

, ''Turdoides sharpei'' *

Black-faced babbler The black-faced babbler (''Turdoides melanops'') is a species of songbird in the family Leiothrichidae. It was once it was considered conspecific with the black-lored babbler, ''A. sharpei.'' As defined here, it occurs in northwestern Botsw ...

, ''Turdoides melanops'' *

Hartlaub's babbler Hartlaub's babbler (''Turdoides hartlaubii'') or the Angola babbler, is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae, which is native to south central Africa. The common name and Latin binomial commemorate the German physician and ornithologis ...

, ''Turdoides hartlaubii'' * Hinde's babbler, ''Turdoides hindei'' * Spiny babbler, ''Turdoides nipalensis'' * White-throated mountain babbler, ''Turdoides gilberti'' – previously in ''Kupeornis'' *

Red-collared babbler The red-collared babbler (''Turdoides rufocinctus''), also known as the red-collared mountain-babbler, is a passerine bird in the family Leiothrichidae. It is found in Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. Its natural ...

, ''Turdoides rufocinctus'' – previously in ''Kupeornis'' *

Chapin's babbler Chapin's babbler (''Turdoides chapini'') or Chapin's mountain-babbler, is a species of passerine bird in the family Leiothrichidae. It is endemic to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist ...

, ''Turdoides chapini'' – previously in ''Kupeornis'' * Capuchin babbler, ''Turdoides atripennis'' – previously in

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 ...

''Phyllanthus''

References

* Collar, N. J. & Robson C. 2007. Family Timaliidae (Babblers) pp. 70 – 291 in; del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Christie, D.A. eds. ''

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. {{Taxonbar, from=Q2104600 Bird genera Leiothrichidae Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Philipp Jakob Cretzschmar