Geositta | |
---|---|
Slender-billed miner (Geositta tenuirostris) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Furnariidae |
Genus: | Geositta Swainson, 1837 |
Type species | |
Geositta anthoides Swainson, 1838 | |
Species | |
11, see text |
Geositta is a genus of passerine birds in the ovenbird family, Furnariidae. They are known as miners (not to be confused with the unrelated miners, Manorina , of Australia) due to the tunnels they dig for nesting. There are 11 species including the campo miner (Geositta poeciloptera) which was formerly classified in a genus of its own, Geobates. They inhabit open country in South America, particularly the Andean and Patagonian regions. They are ground-dwelling birds, somewhat resembling the larks and wheatears of other continents. They are mostly drab brown in coloration and often have a fairly long and slender bill. [1]
The genus Geositta was introduced in 1837 by the English naturalist William Swainson to accommodate a single species, Geositta anthoides which is therefore the type species by monotypy. [2] Swainson formally described the type species in the following year in his Animals in Menageries. [3] The name Geositta anthoides is considered as a junior synonym of Alauda fissirostris which had been described in 1835 by the German naturalist Heinrich von Kittlitz. [4] [5] The taxon is now treated as a subspecies of the common miner with the trinomial name Geositta cunicularia fissirostris. [6] The genus name Geositta combines the Ancient Greek γεω-/geō- meaning "ground-" or "earth-" with the genus Sitta that had been introduced for the Eurasian nuthatch in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus. [7]
The following cladogram showing the relationship between the species is based on a large molecular phylogenetic study of the suboscines by Michael Harvey and collaborators that was published in 2020. [8]
Geositta |
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The genus contains 11 species: [6]
Image | Scientific name | Common Name | Distribution |
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Geositta peruviana | Coastal miner | Peru | |
Geositta cunicularia | Common miner | Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, parts of Peru and Bolivia and in southernmost Brazil | |
Geositta tenuirostris | Slender-billed miner | Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru | |
Geositta antarctica | Short-billed miner | Santa Cruz Province and Tierra del Fuego | |
Geositta isabellina | Creamy-rumped miner | Argentina and Chile | |
Geositta saxicolina | Dark-winged miner | Peru | |
Geositta maritima | Greyish miner | Chile and Peru | |
Geositta punensis | Puna miner | Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru | |
Geositta rufipennis | Rufous-banded miner | Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile | |
Geositta poeciloptera | Campo miner | Brazil and far northeastern Bolivia | |
Geositta crassirostris | Thick-billed miner | Peru | |
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William Swainson FLS, FRS, was an English ornithologist, malacologist, conchologist, entomologist, and artist.
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