The silktails are a group of birds endemic to

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

. The two species (

Taveuni silktail The Taveuni silktail (''Lamprolia victoriae'') is a species of bird endemic to Fiji. This beautiful bird looks superficially like a diminutive bird-of-paradise but it is actually closely related to the fantails. Finsch named the species after Vi ...

and

Natewa silktail The Natewa silktail (''Lamprolia klinesmithi'') is a species of bird endemic to Fiji. This beautiful bird looks superficially like a diminutive bird-of-paradise but it is actually closely related to the fantails. The species name ''kleinschmidti ...

) 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 thi ...

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 "f ...

Species

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

(''Lamprolia klinesmithi'') Ramsay, EP, 1876 — Vanua Levu.

Taxonomy and systematics

The systematic position of the silktails have been a long-standing mystery. When describing the Taveuni silktail, Otto Finsch 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 (Paradisaeidae), the Australasian robins (Petroicidae) and the

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

s (Maluridae). Since 1980, the genus has generally been considered to be an ancient and aberrant monarch flycatcher. A 2009 molecular study placed them as a sister to the

pygmy drongo The drongo fantail (''Chaetorhynchus papuensis''), also known as the pygmy drongo, is a species of passerine bird endemic to the island of New Guinea. It is the only species in the genus ''Chaetorhynchus''. The species was long placed within the ...

of the highlands of New Guinea, and the two of these as a sister clade to the

s (Rhipiduridae). The genus ''Lamprolia'' is named after the diminutive of ( Ancient Greek) 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 Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...

of the male is velvet black with metallic blue

iridescent Iridescence (also known as goniochromism) is the phenomenon of certain surfaces that appear to gradually change color as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. Examples of iridescence include soap bubbles, feathers, butterfl ...

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 Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

References

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