Pellorneidae

Pellorneidae
Puff-throated babbler (Pellorneum ruficeps)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Superfamily: Sylvioidea
Family: Pellorneidae
Delacour, 1946
Genera

The jungle babblers[citation needed] are a family, Pellorneidae, of mostly Old World passerine birds belonging to the superfamily Sylvioidea.[1][2] They are quite diverse in size and coloration, and usually characterised by soft, fluffy plumage and a tail on average the length of their body, or longer. These birds are found in tropical zones, with the greatest biodiversity in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

Morphological diversity is rather high; most species resemble warblers, jays or thrushes, making field identification difficult.

The family Pellorneidae was first introduced by the French-American ornithologist Jean Théodore Delacour in 1946.[3] Pellorneidae used to be one of four subfamilies of Timaliidae (tree- and scimitar-babblers), but was then elevated to its own family rank in 2011 based on molecular markers.[4][5]

  1. ^ Fregin, Silke; Haase, Martin; Olsson, Urban; Alström, Per (2012). "New insights into family relationships within the avian superfamily Sylvioidea (Passeriformes) based on seven molecular markers". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 12 (1): 157. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-12-157. ISSN 1471-2148. PMC 3462691. PMID 22920688.
  2. ^ Cibois, Alice; Gelang, Magnus; Alström, Per; Pasquet, Eric; Fjeldså, Jon; Ericson, Per G. P.; Olsson, Urban (2018-06-07). "Comprehensive phylogeny of the laughingthrushes and allies (Aves, Leiothrichidae) and a proposal for a revised taxonomy". Zoologica Scripta. 47 (4): 428–440. doi:10.1111/zsc.12296. ISSN 0300-3256. S2CID 51883434.
  3. ^ Delacour, Jean Théodore. "Les timaliinés". L'Oiseaux (in French). 16: 7–36.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference ioc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Gustafsson, D.R.; Clayton, D.H.; Bush, S.E. (2018). "Twelve new species of Priceiella (Phthiraptera: Ischnocera: Philopteridae) from Old World babblers, with keys to species of two subgenera and checklists of species for the genus". Zootaxa. 4382 (3): 401–449. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4382.3.1.