画眉科科

画眉科鸟类为中小型鸣禽。喙细直而侧扁，先端有不同程度的下弯，上喙尖多具缺刻；鼻孔被羽或须毛覆盖；翅短圆；尾长，呈椭圆或楔形；多在灌木丛基部或地面活动，不善长距离飞翔。腿长，脚趾强健；善于鸣啭和效鸣。

分类

• 其下很多鸟类已经分入莺鹛科及绣眼鸟科。该科现有9属53种：
• 钩嘴鹛属 Pomatorhinus
• 鹩鹛属 Spelaeornis
• 穗鹛属 Stachyris
• 红头穗鹛属 Cyanoderma
• 棕腹鹛属 Dumetia
• 黑头鹛属 Rhopocichla
• 纹胸鹛属 Mixornis
• 褐纹胸鹛属 Macronus
• 红顶鹛属 Timalia

轶事

历史上，画眉科是著名的分类垃圾桶，大量不相关的旧大陆鸟类被归类于此，德国鸟类学家恩斯特·哈特尔特在1910年描述画眉科时，曾半开玩笑地说：“不知道应该怎么分类的鸟，就属于画眉科。”

The Timaliidae are a family of mostly Old World passerine birds. They are rather diverse in size and coloration, but are characterised by soft, fluffy plumage. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The timaliids are one of two unrelated groups of birds known as babblers, the other being the Australasian babblers of the family Pomatostomidae (also known as pseudo-babblers). This family takes its name from the genus Timalia: this generic name was coined by the French zoologist Georges Cuvier in 1821. Although Cuvier did not explain its etymology, it is thought to be based on a Latinized form of an Asian vernacular name (probably Hindu or Indo-Malaysian languages) for these birds, as many species in this family are native to South and Southeast Asia.

Morphological diversity is rather high; most species resemble "warblers", jays or thrushes. This group is among those Old World bird families with the highest number of species still being discovered.

Characteristics

Timaliids are small to medium birds. They have strong legs, and many are quite terrestrial. They typically have generalised bills, similar to those of a thrush or warbler, except for the scimitar babblers which, as their name implies, have strongly decurved bills. Most have predominantly brown plumage, with minimal difference between the sexes, but many more brightly coloured species also exist.

This group is not strongly migratory, and most species have short rounded wings, and a weak flight. They live in lightly wooded or scrubland environments, ranging from swamp to near-desert. They are primarily insectivorous, although many will also take berries, and the larger species will even eat small lizards and other vertebrates.

Typical babblers live in communities of around a dozen birds, jointly defending a territory. Many even breed communally, with a dominant pair building a nest, and the remainder helping to defend and rear their young. Young males remain with the group, while females move away to find a new group, and thus avoid inbreeding. They make nests from twigs, and hide them in dense vegetation.

Taxonomy and systematics

The systematics of Old World babblers have long been contested. During much of the 20th century, the family was used as a "wastebin taxon" for numerous hard-to-place Old World songbirds (such as Picathartidae and Pnoepygidae, as well as the New World species the wrentit). The German ornithologist Ernst Hartert summarized this attitude with the statement that, in the passerines: "Was man nicht unterbringen kann, sieht man als Timalien an." (What one can't place systematically is considered an Old World babbler).

The most obviously misplaced taxa were removed piecemeal towards the end of the last century. Since then, with the aid of DNA sequence data, it has been confirmed that even the remaining group is not monophyletic. Analysis of mtDNA cytochrome b and 12S/16S rRNA data (Cibois 2003a) spread the Timaliidae that were studied across what essentially was a badly resolved polytomy with Old World warblers and white-eyes. As the typical warblers (genus Sylvia) grouped with some presumed timaliids (such as the fulvettas), it was suggested that some Sylviidae should be moved to the Timaliidae.

The phylogenetic relationships between Timaliidae and other families was determined in a molecular phylogenetic study by Tianlong Cai and collaborators that was published in 2019. It is shown in the cladogram below:

The cladogram below shows the relationships between the genera. These were determined in the same study by Cai and collaborators.