MIMID

(Redirected from Mimidae)
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The 'mimids' are the New World family of passerine birds, 'Mimidae', that includes thrashers, mockingbirds, tremblers, and the New World catbirds. As their name (Latin for "mimic") suggests, these birds are notable for their vocalization, especially their remarkable ability to mimic a wide variety of birds and other sounds heard outdoors. Mimides tend towards dull grays and browns in their appearance.
There are over 30 species in two larger and some 10 small or monotypic genera. The mockingbirds with some thrashers versus the two other groups and the remaining thrashers seem to form the 2 major clades in the family, but the basal branching pattern is not well resolved. The tremblers, again, are a monophyletic lineage. The latter, however, are embedded in a paraphyletic catbird-Caribbean thrasher assemblage which consists of many rather basal lineages.(Hunt ''et al.'' 2001, Barber ''et al.'' 2004)
Contrary to often-held belief, it was not the Darwin's finches but the ''Nesomimus'' mockingbirds which inspired Darwin's work on his theory of evolution [1].

Contents

Systematics

References

Footnotes

External links

Systematics

Phylogenetic analyses have shown that mimids are most closely related to starlings (Sibley & Monroe 1990, Zuccon ''et al.'' 2006). These and oxpeckers (and the Philippine creepers if they are not outright but highly apomorphic starlings) form a group of Muscicapoidea which originated probably in the Early Miocene - very roughly 25-20 mya^[1] - somewhere in East Asia (Zuccon ''et al.'' 2006). This is evidenced by the Asian-SW Pacific distribution of the most basal starlings (and Philippine creepers) and the North American range of the basal mimids.
They are sometimes united with the starlings in the Sturnidae as a tribe 'Mimini' as proposed by Sibley & Monroe (1990). This makes the expanded Stunidae a rather noninformative group and is probably due to the methodological drawbacks of their DNA-DNA hybridization technique.
For the evolutionary relationships of the different mimid lineages, see their articles.
Mockingbirds

★ Genus ''Mimus'' - typical mockingbirds (some 10 species, includes ''Mimodes'')

★ Genus ''Nesomimus'' - Galápagos mockingbirds (4 species)

★ Genus ''Melanotis'' - blue mockingbirds (2 species)
New World catbirds

★ Genus ''Dumetella'' - Gray Catbird

★ Genus ''Melanoptila'' - Black Catbird
Thrashers

★ Genus ''Oreoscoptes'' - Sage Thrasher

★ Genus ''Toxostoma'' - typical thrashers (11 species)

★ Genus ''Ramphocinclus'' - White-breasted Thrasher

★ Genus ''Allenia'' - Scaly-breasted Thrasher (formerly in ''Margarops'')

★ Genus ''Margarops'' - Pearly-eyed Thrasher
Tremblers

★ Genus ''Cinclocerthia'' (2 species)

References

★ (2004): Systematic position of the Socorro mockingbird ''Mimodes graysoni''. ''J. Avian Biol.'' '35': 195-198. (HTML abstract)

★ (2001): Molecular systematics and biogeography of Antillean thrashers, tremblers, and mockingbirds (Aves: Mimidae). ''Auk'' '118'(1): 35–55. DOI:10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118[0035:MSABOA]2.0.CO;2 HTML fulltext without images

★ (1990): ''Distribution and taxonomy of the birds of the world: A Study in Molecular Evolution''. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. ISBN 0-300-04969-2

★ (2006): Nuclear and mitochondrial sequence data reveal the major lineages of starlings, mynas and related taxa. ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' '41'(2): 333-344. (HTML abstract)

Footnotes

1. The seemingly precise dates of Zuccon ''et al.'' are not based on material evidence but on a crude estimate; a general Early Miocene age agrees with the phylogeny of other Passeri however.

External links

★ Mimid videos on the Internet Bird Collection