Psophodidae is a

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

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 ...

birds native to Australia and nearby areas. It has a complicated taxonomic history and different authors vary in which birds they include in the family. In the strictest sense, it includes only the 5 or 6 species of whipbirds and wedgebills ('' Psophodes'' and '' Androphobus''), but some authors also include the quail-thrushes (''Cinclosoma''), 8

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

of ground-dwelling birds found in Australia and

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 jewel-babblers (''Ptilorrhoa''), 3 or 4 species found in rainforest in New Guinea. Others place them in their own family, the Cinclosomatidae. The

Malaysian rail-babbler The rail-babbler or Malaysian rail-babbler (''Eupetes macrocerus'') is a strange, rail-like, brown and pied ground-living bird. It is the only species in the genus ''Eupetes'' and family Eupetidae. It lives on the floor of primary forests in the ...

(''Eupetes macrocerus'') was formerly sometimes placed in this family, which would then be called Eupetidae.

Taxonomy

The quail-thrushes, jewel-babblers, whipbirds and wedgebills were traditionally included with the

logrunner The logrunners are two species of birds in the family Orthonychidae. They were previously considered conspecific, but as they differ significantly, they are now generally considered separate species. The family Orthonychidae also contains a third ...

s (''Orthonyx'') in the family Orthonychidae.Roberson, Don (2004
Quail-thrushes Cinclosomatidae
Bird Families of the World. Accessed 4 January 2010. Sometimes the Malaysian rail-babbler and blue-capped ifrit (''Ifrita kowaldi'') were also included in the family. In 1985, Sibley and Ahlquist found that the logrunners were not related to the others and included only the logrunners in the Orthonychidae.Christidis, Les & Walter Boles (2008) ''Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds'', CSIRO Publishing. They treated the others as the subfamily Cinclosomatinae within their expanded family Corvidae. A number of authors later treated the quail-thrushes and allies as the family Cinclosomatidae, a name first coined by Gregory Mathews in 1921–1922. However, if the whipbirds are included in the family, the older name Psophodidae Bonaparte, 1854 has priority. If the Malaysian rail-babbler is also included, the name Eupetidae Bonaparte, 1850 has priority. The Malaysian rail-babbler has now been shown to be unrelated to the others, probably being an early offshoot of the Passerida. Another study found the quail-thrushes and jewel-babblers to be related to each other but did not show them to have a close relationship with ''Psophodes'' or ''Ifrita''.

Description

Whipbirds and wedgebills are 19–31 cm long. They are mainly olive-green or brown in colour and have a crest.Pizzey, Graham & Frank Knight (1997) ''Field Guide to the Birds of Australia'', HarperCollins, London, UK.

Distribution and habitat

The whipbirds and wedgebills are all found in Australia, occurring in a range of habitats from rainforest to arid scrub. The western whipbird is considered to be near-threatened because of

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

and fires while the

Papuan whipbird The Papuan whipbird (''Androphobus viridis'') is a little-known and unobtrusive species of bird in the family Psophodidae. It is monotypic within the genus ''Androphobus''. It is found in Western New Guinea. It is currently classified as Least ...

is classed as data deficient.BirdLife International (2009) datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=5607&m=0 Species factsheet: ''Androphobus viridis'' Downloaded from on 4 January 2010.

Behaviour

They are terrestrial birds which fly fairly weakly and prefer to squat or run when disturbed. They forage on the ground feeding mainly on insects and other invertebrates.Perrins, Christopher, ''ed.'' (2004) ''The New Encyclopedia of Birds'', Oxford University Press, Oxford. In the desert, quail-thrushes also eat some seeds. They build a cup-shaped nest among shrubs or on the ground. Two or three

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s are laid.

Species list

* Genus ''Androphobus'' **

, ''Androphobus viridis'' * Genus '' Psophodes'' ** Eastern whipbird, ''Psophodes olivaceus'' ** Black-throated whipbird, ''Psophodes nigrogularis'' ** White-bellied whipbird, ''Psophodes leucogaster'' ** Chiming wedgebill, ''Psophodes occidentalis'' ** Chirruping wedgebill, ''Psophodes cristatus''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3034620 Bird families ^ Passeri Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte