Xenops
Streaked xenops (Xenops rutilans)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Furnariidae
Genus: Xenops
Illiger, 1811
Type species
Xenops genibarbis[1]
Illiger, 1811
Species

See text.

Xenops is a genus in the bird family Furnariidae, the ovenbirds. The genus comprises four species of xenops, all of which are found in Mexico, Central America and South America, particularly in tropical rain forests.

They are small birds with a longish tail, a laterally flattened bill with an upturned tip (except in the slender-billed xenops), brown back and buff or rufous wing stripe. They forage for insects on bark, rotting stumps or bare twigs, moving mechanically in all directions on the trunk like a woodcreeper, but without using the tail as a prop.

Together with the distinct great xenops (Megaxenops parnaguae), this genus forms the tribe Xenopini, which based on some recent studies belongs in the woodcreeper and xenops subfamily Dendrocolaptinae,[2] while others have found them to be part of the "traditional" ovenbirds.[3] A study from 2013 found that they should be a family distinct from both.[4]

Species

Formerly, the rufous-tailed xenops was placed in this genus, but it has been moved to the monotypic Microxenops. The following species remain in the genus Xenops:

Image Scientific name Common Name Distribution
Xenops tenuirostris Slender-billed xenops Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela
Xenops genibarbis Plain xenops from southern Mexico south to western Ecuador, northeastern Argentina and central Brazil
Xenops minutus White-throated xenops east Brazil
Xenops rutilans Streaked xenops from Costa Rica and Trinidad south to Bolivia and northern Argentina

References

  1. ^ "Funariidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
  2. ^ Fjeldså, J., M. Irestedt, & P. G. P. Ericson (2005). Molecular data reveal some major adaptational shifts in the early evolution of the most diverse avian family, the Furnariidae. Journal of Ornithology 146: 1–13.
  3. ^ Moyle, R. G., R. T. Chesser, R. T. Brumfield, J. G. Tello, D. J. Marchese, & J. Cracraft (2009). Phylogeny and phylogenetic classification of the antbirds, ovenbirds, woodcreepers, and allies (Aves: Passeriformes: infraorder Furnariides). Cladistics 25: 386-405.
  4. ^ Ohlson, J; Irestedt, M; Ericson, P; Fjeldså, J (2013). "Phylogeny and classification of the New World suboscines (Aves, Passeriformes)". Zootaxa. 3613 (1): 1–35. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3613.1.1. PMID 24698900.
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