Thrashers are a New World group of
passerine birds related to
mockingbirds and
New World catbirds. Like these, they are in the
family Mimidae. There are 15 species in one large and 4
monotypic genera
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 nomenclat ...
.
These do not form 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, ...
but are a
phenetic assemblage. It is rather likely than not — though by no means robustly supported — that the
sage thrasher is a
basal
Basal or basilar is a term meaning ''base'', ''bottom'', or ''minimum''.
Science
* Basal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features associated with the base of an organism or structure
* Basal (medicine), a minimal level that is nec ...
lineage among a group also consisting of
mockingbirds and ''
Toxostoma'' thrashers. The
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
thrashers occupy varying positions in an assemblage consisting of them, the
tremblers, and the
New World catbirds. Here, the
white-breasted thrasher appears to be quite basal though it is impossible to place it anywhere with certainty, whereas the
pearly-eyed thrasher is probably quite close to the tremblers. (Hunt ''et al.'' 2001, Barber ''et al.'' 2004)
Their common name describes the behaviour of these birds when searching for food on the ground: they use their long bills to "thrash" through dirt or dead leaves. All of these birds eat
insects and several species also eat berries.
Taxonomic list
References
* Barber, Brian R.; Martínez-Gómez, Juan E. & Peterson, A. Townsend (2004): Systematic position of the Socorro mockingbird ''Mimodes graysoni''. ''
J. Avian Biol.'' 35: 195–198.
(HTML abstract)
* Hunt, Jeffrey S.; Bermingham, Eldredge; & Ricklefs, Robert E. (2001): Molecular systematics and biogeography of Antillean thrashers, tremblers, and mockingbirds (Aves: Mimidae). ''
Auk'' 118(1): 35–55.
DOI:10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118 035:MSABOA.0.CO;2HTML fulltext without images
External links
Thrasher videoson the Internet Bird Collection
{{Authority control
Mimidae
*
Bird common names