Pomatorhinus
Genus of birds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pomatorhinus is a genus of scimitar babblers, jungle birds with long downcurved bills. These are birds of tropical Asia, with the greatest number of species occurring in hills of the Himalayas.
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| Pomatorhinus | |
|---|---|
| |
| Taiwan scimitar babbler (Pomatorhinus musicus) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Timaliidae |
| Genus: | Pomatorhinus Horsfield, 1821 |
| Type species | |
| Pomatorhinus montanus[1] Horsfield, 1821 | |
| Species | |
|
See text | |
These are medium-sized, floppy-tailed landbirds with soft plumage. They are typically long-tailed, dark brown above, and white or orange-brown below. Many have striking head patterns, with a broad black band through the eye, bordered with white above and below.
They have strong legs and are quite terrestrial. Like other babblers, these are noisy birds, and the characteristic bubbling calls are often the best indication that these birds are present. As with other babbler species, they frequently occur in groups of up to a dozen, and the rainforest species like the Indian scimitar babbler often occur in the mixed feeding flocks typical of tropical Asian jungle.
Taxonomy
The genus Pomatorhinus was introduced in 1821 by the American naturalist Thomas Horsfield to accommodate a single species, Pomatorhinus montanus Horsfield, the Javan scimitar babbler.[2] This species is the type species of the genus.[3] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek πωμα/pōma, πωματος/pōmatos meaning "lid" or "cover" with ῥις/rhis, ῥινος/rhinos meaning "nostrils".[4]
The genus contains 11 species.[5] The cladogram below showing the relationships within the genus is based on a 2019 molecular phylogenetic study by Tianlong Cai and coworkers:[6]
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Species
| Image | Common name | Scientific name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
.JPG) | Indian scimitar babbler | Pomatorhinus horsfieldii | Peninsular India |
.jpg) | Sri Lanka scimitar babbler | Pomatorhinus melanurus | Sri Lanka |
 |
Sunda scimitar babbler | Pomatorhinus bornensis | Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. |
 | White-browed scimitar babbler | Pomatorhinus schisticeps | Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. |
 | Javan scimitar babbler | Pomatorhinus montanus | Indonesia |
 | Streak-breasted scimitar babbler | Pomatorhinus ruficollis | Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, and Vietnam. |
| Taiwan scimitar babbler | Pomatorhinus musicus | Taiwan |
.jpg) | Red-billed scimitar babbler | Pomatorhinus ochraceiceps | Northeast India, Southeast Asia and adjacent parts of southern China. |
.jpg) | Black-crowned scimitar babbler | Pomatorhinus ferruginosus | Bhutan, India, Nepal, China. |
.jpg) | Brown-crowned scimitar babbler | Pomatorhinus phayrei | Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, China. |
 | Slender-billed scimitar babbler | Pomatorhinus superciliaris | the Himalayas to north-western Vietnam. |
