Bushshrikes | |
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A yellow-crowned gonolek (Laniarius barbarus) in Gambia | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Suborder: | Passeri |
Family: |
Malaconotidae Swainson, 1824 |
Genera | |
Nilaus |
Nilaus
Dryoscopus
Tchagra
Laniarius
Rhodophoneus
Telophorus
Malaconotus
The bushshrikes are smallish passerine birds. They were formerly classed with the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, but are now considered sufficiently distinctive to be separated from that group as the family Malaconotidae.
This is an African group of species which are found in scrub or open woodland. They are similar in habits to shrikes, hunting insects and other small prey from a perch on a bush. Although similar in build to the shrikes, these tend to be either colourful species or largely black; some species are quite secretive.
Some bushshrikes have flamboyant displays. The male puffbacks puff out the loose feathers on their rump and lower back, to look almost ball-like.
These are mainly insectivorous forest or scrub birds. Up to four eggs are laid in a cup nest in a tree.
Bushshrikes are small to medium-sized passerines, with short, rounded wings and strong legs and feet. Plumage is typically black, grey, and brown, with some yellow and green. Some bush shrikes have red undersides or red throat-patches.
Bock has posited that the family name Malaconotidae was first used by William John Swainson in 1824, however this is disputed by Storrs Olson, who reports that Swainson used the term Malaconoti as a non-defining plural, and placed the genus within the Thamnophilinae within the shrike family Laniidae. Peters regarded the group as a subfamily, Malaconotinae, of the shrikes. In 1971, the group was raised to family status, with their resemblance to typical shrikes considered to be more a result of convergent evolution.
Bushshrikes, helmetshrikes (Prionopidae), ioras (Aegithinidae), vangas (Vangidae) and the Australian butcherbirds, magpies and currawongs (Cracticidae) and woodswallows (Artamidae) are part of a large group of shrike-like birds distributed from Africa to Australia, which have been defined as the superfamily Malaconotoidea by Cacraft and colleagues in 2004. Previously, bushshrikes and helmetshrikes have been considered part of the Old World shrike (Laniidae) family, based on shared characteristics including a hooked bill. However, analysis of behavioral and molecular characteristics places Malaconotidae closer to Platysteiridae and Vangidae, suggesting that the bird of the Laniidae family are only distant relatives.