Melanotis

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Melanotis
Melanotis caerulescens - Victoria.jpg
Blue mockingbird (Melanotis caerulescens)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Mimidae
Genus: Melanotis
Bonaparte, 1850
Type species
Turdus melanotis [1]
Temminck, 1830
Species

M. caerulescens
M. hypoleucus

Melanotis is a genus of bird in the family Mimidae. It contains the following species:

Contents

ImageCommon NameScientific nameDistribution
Melanotis caerulescens - Victoria.jpg Blue mockingbird Melanotis caerulescensMexico
Melanotis hypoleucus - 2021.jpg Blue-and-white mockingbird Melanotis hypoleucusEl Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico

Etymology

The word Melanotis is derived from the Ancient Greek roots melano-/μελανο- "black" and ot-/ὠτ- "ear". [2]

Description

The two Melanotis species are the world's most brightly colored mockingbirds. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mimid</span> Family of birds

The mimids are the New World family of passerine birds, Mimidae, that includes thrashers, mockingbirds, tremblers, and the New World catbirds. As their name suggests, these birds are notable for their vocalization, especially some species' remarkable ability to mimic a wide variety of birds and other sounds heard outdoors. They are commonly referred to as mimic thrushes but are not, in fact, thrushes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mockingbird</span> Family of birds

Mockingbirds are a group of New World passerine birds from the family Mimidae. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of other birds and the sounds of insects and amphibians, often loudly and in rapid succession. There are about 17 species in two genera, although three species of mockingbird from the Galapagos Islands were formerly separated into a third genus, Nesomimus. The mockingbirds do not appear to form a monophyletic lineage, as Mimus and Melanotis are not each other's closest relatives; instead, Melanotis appears to be more closely related to the catbirds, while the closest living relatives of Mimus appear to be thrashers, such as the sage thrasher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxpecker</span> Genus of birds

The oxpeckers are two species of bird which make up the genus Buphagus, and family Buphagidae. The oxpeckers were formerly usually treated as a subfamily, Buphaginae, within the starling family, Sturnidae, but molecular phylogenetic studies have consistently shown that they form a separate lineage that is basal to the sister clades containing the Sturnidae and the Mimidae. Oxpeckers are endemic to the savanna of Sub-Saharan Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gray catbird</span> Species of bird

The gray catbird, also spelled grey catbird, is a medium-sized North American and Central American perching bird of the mimid family. It is the only member of the "catbird" genus Dumetella. Like the black catbird, it is among the basal lineages of the Mimidae, probably a closer relative of the Caribbean thrasher and trembler assemblage than of the mockingbirds and Toxostoma thrashers. In some areas it is known as the slate-colored mockingbird.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catbird</span> Group of birds

Several unrelated groups of songbirds are called catbirds because of their wailing calls, which resemble a cat's meowing. The genus name Ailuroedus likewise is from the Greek for 'cat-singer' or 'cat-voiced'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-eared miner</span> Species of bird

The black-eared miner is an endangered honeyeater endemic to mallee woodland in south-eastern Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pearly-eyed thrasher</span> Species of bird

The pearly-eyed thrasher is a bird in the thrasher family Mimidae. It is found on many Caribbean islands, from the Bahamas in the north to the Grenadines in the south, with an isolated subspecies on Bonaire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gray climbing mouse</span> Species of rodent

The gray climbing mouse is a species of rodent in the family Nesomyidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitats are dry savanna, Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland, and temperate desert.

Handleyomys melanotis, also known as the black-eared oryzomys or black-eared rice rat, is a species of rodent in the genus Handleyomys of family Cricetidae. It is found in coastal lowland forest in western Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-eared wood quail</span> Species of bird

The black-eared wood quail is a bird species in the order Galliformes. Until recently, the species was thought to be part of the family Phasianidae however DNA-DNA hybridization results determined that black-eared wood quail are only distantly related to Old World quail. As a result, black-eared wood quail have been placed in the family Odontophoridae and more specifically, in the category of wood quail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-masked finch</span> Species of bird

The black-masked finch is a species of South American bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is the only member of the genus Coryphaspiza. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Peru. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland, and subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland. It is threatened by habitat loss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue mockingbird</span> Species of bird

The blue mockingbird is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is endemic to Mexico, but has occurred as a vagrant in the southern United States. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, and heavily degraded former forest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue-and-white mockingbird</span> Species of bird

The blue-and-white mockingbird is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is found in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.

<i>Mimus</i> Genus of birds

Mimus is a bird genus in the family Mimidae. It contains the typical mockingbirds. In 2007, the genus Nesomimus was merged into Mimus by the American Ornithologists' Union. The genus name is Latin for "mimic".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Cristóbal mockingbird</span> Species of bird

The San Cristóbal mockingbird or Chatham mockingbird, is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is endemic to San Cristóbal Island in the Galápagos Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Floreana mockingbird</span> Species of bird

The Floreana mockingbird or the Charles Island mockingbird, is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It was endemic to Floreana, one of the Galápagos Islands, but now is found only on two nearby islets, Campeón and Gardner-near-Floreana. The Floreana mockingbird is also known as Darwin's mockingbird, as it was the arguable inspiration for Charles Darwin's work on the origins of species; he noticed distinct differences between them and previous species he had encountered and consequently established the existence of other variants on neighboring islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-eared shrike-babbler</span> Species of bird

The black-eared shrike-babbler is a bird species in the vireo family, Vireonidae. It was traditionally considered as an aberrant Old World babbler and formerly placed in the family Timaliidae. It was long noted that their habits resembled those of vireos, but this was previously ascribed to the result of convergent evolution. It is found in Southeast Asia from the Himalayas to western Malaysia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

<i>Toxostoma</i> Genus of birds

Toxostoma is a genus of bird in the family Mimidae. This genus contains most of the birds called thrashers, and accordingly members of this genus are sometimes referred to as the "typical thrashers".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Talaud bear cuscus</span> Species of marsupial

The Talaud bear cuscus is a species of marsupial in the family Phalangeridae. It is endemic to Salibabu Island in the Talaud Islands, Indonesia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests. The species is considered Critically Endangered, with a small population size and heavy hunting pressure on both islands where it occurs, as well as continued habitat degradation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brown thrasher</span> Species of bird

The brown thrasher, sometimes erroneously called the brown thrush or fox-coloured thrush, is a bird in the family Mimidae, which also includes the New World catbirds and mockingbirds. The brown thrasher is abundant throughout the eastern and central United States and southern and central Canada, and it is the only thrasher to live primarily east of the Rockies and central Texas. It is the state bird of Georgia.

References

  1. "Mimidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-15.
  2. Liddell, Henry George and Robert Scott (1980). A Greek-English Lexicon (Abridged ed.). United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. pp.  431, 507. ISBN   0-19-910207-4.
  3. Alderfer, Jonathan (2009). National Geographic Complete Birds of the World. National Geographic Books. p. 310. ISBN   978-1-4262-0403-6.