Biota

Exploring Nature

Section 9C – Australasian & Basal Oscines

Order Passeriformes (Perching Birds)

Australasian early songbirds: fairywrens, honeyeaters & allies

This subsection covers the earliest groups of true songbirds, centred in Australasia. It includes ancient lineages such as lyrebirds and scrub-birds, along with Australasian treecreepers and bowerbirds, followed by the large and varied groups of fairywrens, honeyeaters, thornbills, pardalotes and their close Australian–New Guinean relatives. These families represent the early foundations of the songbird lineage from which most of the world’s later songbirds developed.

These birds occupy a wide range of habitats, from dense forests to open woodlands and heathlands, and include many distinctive Australasian forms.

  1. Menuridae – Lyrebirds
  2. Atrichornithidae – Scrubbirds
  3. Climacteridae – Australasian Treecreepers
  4. Ptilonorhynchidae – Bowerbirds
  5. Maluridae – Grasswrens, Fairywrens, and Emu‑wrens
  6. Dasyornithidae – Bristlebirds
  7. Pardalotidae – Pardalotes
  8. Acanthizidae – Gerygones, Thornbills, Scrubwrens, and Allies
  9. Meliphagidae – Honeyeaters
  10. Orthonychidae – Logrunner and Chowchilla
  11. Pomatostomidae – Australasian Babblers
  12. Cinclosomatidae – Jewel‑babblers and Quail‑thrushes

Species Seen

Below are the species I have recorded from these families:

8 Family: Acanthizidae (Gerygones, Thornbills, Scrubwrens, and Allies) – 1
  1. Grey Warbler (Gerygone igata) — New Zealand
9 Family: Meliphagidae (Honeyeaters) – 2
  1. New Zealand Bellbird (Anthornis melanura) — New Zealand
  2. Tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) — New Zealand

End of Section