''Newtonia'' is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of
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 th ...
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 lightweig ...
s containing four to five species. They were formerly classified in the
Old World warbler
Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird family Sylviidae. The family held over 400 species in over 70 genera, and were the source of much taxonomic confusion. Two families were split out initially, the ci ...
family Sylviidae or
Old World flycatcher
The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, Bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica)'' and Northe ...
family Muscicapidae but have recently been shown to belong to the
vanga
The family Vangidae (from ''vanga'', Malagasy for the hook-billed vanga, ''Vanga curvirostris'') comprises a group of often shrike-like medium-sized birds distributed from Asia to Africa, including the vangas of Madagascar to which the family ...
family Vangidae.
[Yamagishi, Satoshi; Honda, Masanao; Eguchi, Kazuhiro & Thorstrom, Russel (2001]
"Extreme endemic radiation of the Malagasy Vangas (Aves: Passeriformes)"
''Journal of Molecular Evolution'', 53: 39-46
They are
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
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 ...
where they occur in
forest
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
or
scrubland. They forage in pairs for
insect
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...
s, often joining
mixed-species feeding flock
A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while foraging. These are ...
s.
They are small plump birds, about 12 centimetres in length. They have slender
bills and usually have a pale eye. Their
plumage is mainly grey or brown, paler on the underparts. They have loud, repeated
songs
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition ...
.
Species list
List of species in taxonomic order:
*
Northern dark newtonia, ''Newtonia amphichroa''
*
Southern dark newtonia, ''Newtonia lavarambo'' (sometimes considered a subspecies of ''N. amphichroa'')
*
Common newtonia, ''Newtonia brunneicauda''
*
Archbold's newtonia, ''Newtonia archboldi''
*
Red-tailed newtonia, ''Newtonia fanovanae''
References
* Sinclair, Ian & Langrand, Olivier (2003)
Birds of the Indian Ocean Islands', Struik, Cape Town.
Bird genera
{{Vangidae-stub