Stenostiridae

Stenostiridae
Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Suborder:	Passeri
Family:	Stenostiridae Beresford, F.K. Barker, Ryan & Crowe, 2005

Stenostiridae, or the Fairy Flycatchers, is a family of small passerine birds proposed as a result of recent discoveries in molecular systematics (Beresford et al. 2005). They are commonly referred to as stenostirid warblers.

This new clade is named after the Fairy Warbler, a distinct species placed formerly in the Old World flycatchers. This is united with the "sylvioid flycatchers": the genus Elminia (formerly placed in the Monarchinae) and the closely allied former Old World flycatcher genus Culicicapa. (Beresford et al. 2005, Fuchs et al. 2006)

Its genera and species are:

• Genus Stenostira – Fairy "Warbler" or Fairy "Flycatcher"

• Genus Elminia – includes Trochocercus
  • African Blue Flycatcher, Elminia longicauda
  • White-tailed Blue Flycatcher, Elminia albicauda
  • Dusky Crested-flycatcher, Elminia nigromitrata
  • White-bellied Crested-flycatcher, Elminia albiventris
  • White-tailed Crested-flycatcher, Elminia albonotata

• Genus Culicicapa
  • Grey-headed Canary-flycatcher, Culicicapa ceylonensis
  • Citrine Canary-flycatcher, Culicicapa helianthea

Other African or Asian species might conceivably fall into this novel clade. The tit-flycatchers (Myioparus) are apparently true flycatchers morphologically somewhat convergent to Stenostira (Jønsson & Fjeldså 2006).

White-tailed Blue-flycatcher. Photographed at Bwindi, SW Uganda

The Stenostiridae as a whole are related to penduline tits, titmice and chickadees. All these appear to be closer to the Sylvioidea than to other Passerida, but this is not robustly supported by the available data and they might constitute a distinct, more basal superfamily.(Alström et al. 2006, Beresford et al. 2005, Barker et al. 2004)

References

• Alström, Per; Ericson, Per G.P.; Olsson, Urban & Sundberg, Per (2006): Phylogeny and classification of the avian superfamily Sylvioidea. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 38(2): 381–397. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.05.015 PMID 16054402
• Barker, F. Keith; Cibois, Alice; Schikler, Peter A.; Feinstein, Julie & Cracraft, Joel (2004): Phylogeny and diversification of the largest avian radiation. PNAS 101(30): 11040–11045. doi:10.1073/pnas.0401892101 PMID 15263073 PDF fulltext Supporting information
• Beresford, P.; Barker, F.K.; Ryan, P.G. & Crowe, T.M. (2005): African endemics span the tree of songbirds (Passeri): molecular systematics of several evolutionary 'enigmas'. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B 272(1565): 849–858. doi:10.1098/rspb.2004.2997 PDF fulltext Electronic appendix
• Fuchs, J.; Fjeldså, J.; Bowie, R. C. K.; Voelker, G. & Pasquet, E. (2006): The African warbler genus Hyliota as a lost lineage in the oscine songbird tree: Molecular support for an African origin of the Passerida. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 39(1): 186–197. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.07.020 (HTML fulltext)
• Jønsson, Knud A. & Fjeldså, Jon (2006): A phylogenetic supertree of oscine passerine birds (Aves: Passeri). Zool. Scripta 35(2): 149–186. doi::10.1111/j.1463-6409.2006.00221.x (HTML abstract)