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Bulbul

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For other uses, see Bulbul (disambiguation).

Bulbuls
Brown-eared Bulbul, Microscelis amaurotis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Aves
Order:
Passeriformes
Family:
Pycnonotidae
Genera

See text.

Bulbuls (Pycnonotidae) are a family of medium-sized passerine songbirds resident in Africa and tropical Asia. There are about 130 species.

These are mostly frugivorous birds. Some are colorful with yellow, red or orange vents, cheeks, throat or supercilia, but most are drab, with uniform olive brown to black plumage. Some have very distinct crests.

Many of these species inhabit tree tops, while some are restricted to the undergrowth. Up to five purple-pink eggs are laid in an open tree nests and incubated by the female.

The Red-whiskered Bulbul, Pycnonotus jocosus, has been widely introduced to tropical and subtropical areas, for example southern Florida, USA.

Etymology

The word bulbul may derive from Persian (بلبل), or from Turkish (bülbül), meaning nightingale.[citation needed]

Systematics

The traditional layout was to divide the bulbuls into 4 groups, named Pycnonotus, Phyllastrephus, Criniger, and Chlorocichla groups after characteristic genera (Delacour, 1943). However, more recent analyses demonstrated that this arrangement was probably based on erroneous interpretation of characters:

Comparison of mtDNA cytochrome b sequences found that five species of Phyllastrephus did not belong to the bulbuls, but to an enigmatic group of songbirds from Madagascar instead (Cibois et al., 2001; see below for the species in question). Similarly, sequence analysis of the nDNA RAG1 and RAG2 genes suggests that the genus Nicator is not a bulbul either (Beresford et al., 2005). That the previous arrangement had failed to take into account biogeography was indicated by the study of Pasquet et al. (2001) who demonstrated the genus Criniger must be divided into an African and an Asian (Alophoixus) lineage. Using analysis of one nDNA and 2 mtDNA sequences, Moyle & Marks (2006) found one largely Asian lineage and one African group of greenbuls and bristlebills; the Golden Greenbul seemes to be very distinct and form a group of its own. Some taxa are not monophyletic, and more research is necessary to determine relationships within the larger genera.

Systematic list

Basal

Typical bulbuls

The Red-whiskered Bulbul belongs to the Asian Pycnonotus.
Collared Finchbill, Spizixos semitorques
File:Hypsipetes leucocephalus.jpg
Black Bulbul, Hypsipetes leucocephalus

Typical greenbuls and allies

Incertae sedis

This might be allied to Calyptocichla or not be a bulbul at all.

Recently split from Pycnonotidae

The Long-billed Greenbul of Madagascar is now considered to be a Malagasy warbler.

Now in Malagasy warblers

Incertae sedis

References

  • 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
  • Cibois, Alice; Slikas, Beth; Schulenberg, Thomas S. & Pasquet, Eric (2001): An endemic radiation of Malagasy songbirds is revealed by mitochondrial DNA sequence data. Evolution 55(6): 1198-1206. DOI:10.1554/0014-3820(2001)055[1198:AEROMS]2.0.CO;2 PDF fulltext
  • Delacour, J. (1943): A revision of the genera and species of the family Pycnonotidae (bulbuls). Zoologica 28(1): 17-28.
  • Moyle, Robert G. & Marks, Ben D. (2006): Phylogenetic relationships of the bulbuls (Aves: Pycnonotidae) based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40(3): Pages 687-695. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.04.015 (HTML abstract)
  • Pasquet, Éric; Han, Lian-Xian; Khobkhet, Obhas & Cibois, Alice (2001): Towards a molecular systematics of the genus Criniger, and a preliminary phylogeny of the bulbuls (Aves, Passeriformes, Pycnonotidae). Zoosystema 23(4): 857-863. PDF fulltext
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