The silktails are a group of birds

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 Fiji. The two species ( Taveuni silktail and Natewa silktail) are placed in the genus ''Lamprolia''. They look superficially like a diminutive

bird-of-paradise The birds-of-paradise are members of the family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes. The majority of species are found in eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia. The family has 44 species in 17 genera. The members of this ...

but are actually closely related to the

fantail Fantails are small insectivorous songbirds of the genus ''Rhipidura'' in the family Rhipiduridae, native to Australasia, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Most of the species are about long, specialist aerial feeders, and named as " ...

Species

* Taveuni silktail (''Lamprolia victoriae'') Finsch, 1874 —

Taveuni Taveuni (pronounced ) is the third-largest island in Fiji, after Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, with a total land area of . The cigar-shaped island, a massive shield volcano which rises from the floor of the Pacific Ocean, is situated to the east of ...

; * Natewa silktail (''Lamprolia klinesmithi'') Ramsay, EP, 1876 —

Vanua Levu Vanua Levu (pronounced ), formerly known as Sandalwood Island, is the second largest island of Fiji. Located to the north of the larger Viti Levu, the island has an area of and a population of 135,961 . Geology Fiji lies in a tectonically ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The systematic position of the silktails have been a long-standing mystery. When describing the Taveuni silktail,

Otto Finsch Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch (8 August 1839, Warmbrunn – 31 January 1917, Braunschweig) was a German ethnographer, naturalist and colonial explorer. He is known for a two-volume monograph on the parrots of the world which earned him a doctorate ...

wrote "I scarcely remember a bird which has puzzled me in respect of its generic position so much as this curious little creature". They have variously been placed with the

birds-of-paradise The birds-of-paradise are members of the family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes. The majority of species are found in eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia. The family has 44 species in 17 genera. The members of ...

(Paradisaeidae), the Australasian robins (Petroicidae) and the

fairy-wren The Australasian wrens are a family, Maluridae, of small, insectivorous passerine birds endemic to Australia and New Guinea. While commonly known as wrens, they are unrelated to the true wrens. The family comprises 32 species (including sixteen ...

s (Maluridae). Since 1980, the genus has generally been considered to be an ancient and aberrant

monarch flycatcher The monarchs (family Monarchidae) comprise a family of over 100 passerine birds which includes shrikebills, paradise flycatchers, and magpie-larks. Monarchids are small insectivorous songbirds with long tails. They inhabit forest or woodland a ...

. A 2009 molecular study placed them as a sister to the pygmy drongo of the highlands of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

, and the two of these as a sister clade to the

s (Rhipiduridae). The genus ''Lamprolia'' is named after the diminutive of (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

) for splendid or brilliant.

Description

The silktails are small black birds, measuring around and weighing . They are small, dumpy birds with long rounded wings, and a short rounded tail. The plumage of the male is velvet black with metallic blue iridescent spangling on the crown and breast, and silky white lower-back patch that travels most of the length down the tail. The margin of the tail is black, sometimes this tip has the same iridescence as other parts of the body. The female is similar to the male, except less glossy, and immature birds are duller than the adults and may have buffy rumps and backs. The irises of this species are dark, and the legs and bill are blackish. The bill is heavy and slightly hooked at the end. The legs are long and the feet strong. The Natewa silktail is smaller than the Taveuni silktail, and has more iridescence plumage.

Behaviour

The silktails can be quite elusive and difficult to see, but may also be confiding and approachable. They are usually very active at dawn, and is encountered either singly or in small flocks. The diet consists mainly of insects, worms and arthropods.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q10784301 Endemic birds of Fiji Articles containing video clips Taxa named by Otto Finsch