The mesites (Mesitornithidae) are a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s that are part of a

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

(

Columbimorphae Columbimorphae is a clade discovered by genome analysis that includes birds of the orders Columbiformes (pigeons and doves), Pterocliformes Sandgrouse is the common name for Pteroclidae , a family (biology), family of sixteen species of bird ...

) that include

Columbiformes Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

and

Pterocliformes Sandgrouse is the common name for Pteroclidae , a family of sixteen species of bird, members of the order Pterocliformes . They are traditionally placed in two genera. The two central Asian species are classified as '' Syrrhaptes'' and the othe ...

. They are smallish flightless or near flightless birds endemic to

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. They are the only family with more than two species in which every species is threatened (all three are listed as vulnerable).

Description

The mesites are forest and scrubland birds that feed on insects and seeds. The brown and white-breasted mesites forage on the ground, gleaning insects from the leaves and under them, as well as low vegetation. The subdesert mesite uses its long bill to probe in the soil. Other birds, such as

drongo The drongos are a family, Dicruridae, of passerine birds of the Old World tropics. The 30 species in the family are placed in a single genus, ''Dicrurus''. Drongos are mostly black or dark grey, short-legged birds, with an upright stance when ...

s and flycatchers, will follow mesites to catch any insects they flush and miss. Mesites are vocal birds, with calls similar to

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 t ...

song, used for territorial defence. Two or three white eggs are laid in a stick-nest located in a bush or low branch. The ''Mesitornis'' species are

monogamous Monogamy ( ) is a form of Dyad (sociology), dyadic Intimate relationship, relationship in which an individual has only one Significant other, partner during their lifetime. Alternately, only one partner at any one time (Monogamy#Serial monogamy, ...

while ''Monias benschi'' is

polygamous Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is ...

and unlike the other two shows significant

sexual dichromatism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

Systematics

There are two genera, ''Mesitornis'' (2 species) and ''Monias'' (subdesert mesite). Historically, mesites’ phylogenetic relationships were not very clear; they have been allied with the

Gruiformes The Gruiformes are an order (biology), order containing a considerable number of living and extinct bird family (biology), families, with a widespread geographical diversity. Gruiform means "crane-like". Traditionally, a number of wading and t ...

, Turniciformes and

.Hackett, S.J. ''et al.'' (2008
A Phylogenomic Study of Birds Reveals Their Evolutionary History
''Science'', 320(5884):1763–1768. Recent phylogenomic studies support

(sandgrouse) as the sister group of mesites while some more recent studies place this

with another clade constituted of Columbiformes and

Cuculiformes Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separa ...

(cuckoos).

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q659657 Taxa named by Alexander Wetmore Endemic birds of Madagascar