Basal Oscine and Acanthisitti Photo Albums

This album page provides image and text hyperlinks to galleries that display images of Basal Oscines and Acanthisitti (New Zealand Wrens) that belong to order Passeriformes, see Taxonomy note at the end of this page. I photographed in various natural habitats. In each photo album, a gallery features portraits of individual species that may include male, female, juvenile or immature birds. And for some species, a supplementary gallery displays behaviours such as hunting, nesting, feeding, and mating.

Meliphagida

Blue-faced Honeyeater (Entomyzon cyanotis) at Marian in the Mackay Region of Queensland
Honeyeaters

Are a large and diverse group of Australasian small to medium-sized bird species whose habitat includes forest, heathland, mangrove, urban and rural gardens.

Superb Fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) Male perched at Tower Hill Reserve in Victoria
Australasian Wrens, Gerygones and Allies

Scrubwrens, thornbills and pardalotes occupy a variety of habitats including forests, grassland and shrubland. Fairy-wrens are small to very-small insectivores with cocked tails found in similar habits including heath.

Climacterida and Orthonychida

Acanthisitti

Black-eared [Spotted] Catbird (Ailuroedus melanotis maculosus) in the rainforest near Lake Eacham, Atherton Tablelands
Bowerbirds, Catbirds and Australasian Babblers

Bowerbirds and Catbirds are medium to large-sized omnivorous birds found primarily in wet-forests and rainforests. Australasian babblers are medium-sized birds found in woodland and shrubland.

Rifleman (Acanthisitta chloris) male at Governors Bush track in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park
New Zealand Wrens

These are tiny birds found in forest and scrub. The Acanthisittidae family has four known species all endemic to New Zealand.

Basal Oscines Taxonomy

To help the presentation of my photo album collections, I adopt the Basal Oscines taxonomy in J Boyd’s Taxonomy in Flux Checklist. The Basal Oscines branch off separately before the split between Corvida and Passerida, which has ten families, arranged into four parvorders: Menurida, Climacterida, Meliphagida and Orthonychida. In the Sibley and Monroe Checklist, these are superfamilies are placed in Menuroidea, Climacteroidea, Meliphagoidea and Orthonychoidea

The Meliphagida photo album comprises honeyeater (Meliphagidae), fairy-wrens (Maluridae) and thornbill (Acanthizidae). The thornbills, scrubwrens and gerygones (Acanthizidae) merge with Pardalotes (Pardalotinae) and rename Gerygones and Allies.

Similarly, the Menuroidea photo album comprises bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchidae) and catbird (Ailuroedinae).

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