Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Dicruridae Northern Fantail Scientific Classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Dicruridae Subfamilies  Monarchinae  Rhipidurinae  Dicrurinae The family Dicruridae is a relatively recent grouping of a number of seemingly very different birds, mostly from the southern hemisphere, which are more closely related than they at first appear. Many of the 139 species making up the family were previously assigned to other groups, largely on the basis of general morphology or behaviour. The Magpie-lark, for example, was assigned to the same family as the White-winged Chough: both build unusual nests from mud rather than vegetable matter. The Australasian fantails were thought to be allied with the fantails of the northern hemisphere (both groups share a similar diet and behaviour), and so on. With the new insights generated by the DNA-DNA hybridisation studies of Sibley and his co-workers toward the end of the 20th century, however, it became clear that these apparently unrelated birds were all descended from a common ancestor: the same crow-like ancestor that gave rise to the drongos. ORDER PASSERIFORMES (many other families) Family Dicruridae Subfamily Monarchinae: boatbills, monarch flycatchers, Magpie-lark Yellow-breasted Boatbill, Machaerirhynchus flaviventer Black-faced Monarch, Monarcha melanopsis Black-winged Monarch, Monarcha frater Spectacled Monarch, Monarcha trivirgatus White-eared Monarch, ''Monarcha leucotis Pied Monarch, Arses kaupi Broad-billed Flycatcher, Myiagra ruficollis Leaden Flycatcher, Myiagra rubecula Satin Flycatcher, Myiagra cyanoleuca Shining Flycatcher, Myiagra alecto Restless Flycatcher, Myiagra inquieta Magpie-lark, Grallina cyanoleuca Torrent-lark, Grallina bruijni Subfamily Rhipidurinae Rufous Fantail, Rhipidura rufifrons Grey Fantail, Rhipidura fuliginosa Mangrove Grey Fantail, Rhipidura rufifrons Northern Fantail, Rhipidura rufiventris Willie Wagtail, Rhipidura leucophrys Subfamily Dicurinae Papuan Drongo, Chaetorhynchus papuensis Square-tailed Drongo, Dicrurus ludwigii Shining Drongo, Dicrurus atripennis Fork-tailed Drongo, Dicrurus adsimilis Aldabra Drongo, Dicrurus aldabranus Comoro Drongo, Dicrurus fuscipennis Crested Drongo, Dicrurus forficatus Mayotte Drongo, Dicrurus waldenii Black Drongo, Dicrurus macrocercus Ashy Drongo, Dicrurus leucophaeus White-bellied Drongo, Dicrurus caerulescens Crow-billed Drongo, Dicrurus annectans Bronzed Drongo, Dicrurus aeneus Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo, Dicrurus remifer Hair-crested Drongo, Dicrurus hottentottus Balicassiao, Dicrurus balicassius Sulawesi Drongo, Dicrurus montanus Sumatran Drongo, Dicrurus sumatranus Wallacean Drongo, Dicrurus densus Ribbon-tailed Drongo, Dicrurus megarhynchus Spangled Drongo, Dicrurus bracteatus Andaman Drongo, Dicrurus andamanensis Greater Racket-tailed Drongo Dicrurus paradiseus This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.