Philippine creeper

Taxobox
name = Philippine creepers
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Passeriformes
subordo = Passeri
parvordo = Passerida
familia = see text
familia_authority =
genus = "Rhabdornis"
genus_authority =
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = "Rhabdornis grandis"
"Rhabdornis inornatus"
"Rhabdornis mystacalis"The Philippine creepers or rhabdornises are small passerine birds. The family is endemic to the Philippines. The group contains a single genus "Rhabdornis" with three species. They do not migrate, other than to make local movements.

The Philippine creepers are similar in appearance to treecreepers (Certhiidae). They have thin pointed down-curved bills, which they can use to extricate insects from bark, but they have brush-like tongues, which enable them to also feed on nectar. Their behaviour is saidwho|date=July 2007 to resemble that of tits, to which they are not related, more than the treecreepers. Nests are tree crevices.

The placement of genus "Rhabdornis" in a family of its own (Rhabdornithidae aut|Greenway, 1967) is not accepted by all authorities, and it is sometimes placed in Certhiidae or Timaliidae. The German name, "Trugbaumläufer" ("false treecreepers"), reflects this uncertainty. More recently, Zuccon "et al." 2006 place them in a basal clade inside the starlings in the family Sturnidae. Their closest allies seem to be a number of quite plesiomorphic starling lineages mainly from the Asian-Pacific region (such as mynas), so this placement seems as plausible as any other.fact|date=June 2008 Judging from biogeography alone, the treecreepers are indeed far less likely to be related to the Philippine creepers than starlings or timaliids, as neither the Certhiidae nor their close relatives expanded into the Wallacea whereas the latter did. Note also the general rarity of small woodpeckers on the Philippines, implying that "any" bird lineage that would happen to adapt to the same ecological niche was likely to be successful.

Nonetheless, the placement with the starlings requires confirmation. As notoriouslyfact|date=June 2008 confounded by convergent evolution as Philippine creeper anatomy is, the scenario of Zuccon "et al." requires the underlying plesiomorphies closer to those present in starlings and thrashers than to those retained in treecreepers and wrens, and vice versa as regards synapomorphies. This has not been tested; in the meantime, it may be noted that the color pattern of "Rhabdornis" is more similar to that of some "Aplonis" - a member of the group of starlings supposedly most close to the Philippine creepers - than to that of treecreepers. Both Philippine and treecreepers are cryptic in adaptation to their tree-creeping lifestyle, but this is achieved with a very different camouflage pattern in either. Additionally, they are very distant even among starlings (Zuccon "et al." 2006: 340) and may in the end be maintained as a family on their own.

Species
*Stripe-headed Creeper, "Rhabdornis mystacalis"
*Long-billed Creeper, "Rhabdornis grandis"
*Plain-headed Creeper, "Rhabdornis inornatus"

There are two other small bird families with 'treecreeper' or 'creeper' in their name: Australian treecreepers, and treecreepers. The latter are discussed above, the former are an entirely unrelated family of passerine birds.

References

*aut|Zuccon, Dario; Cibois, Anne; Pasquet, Eric & Ericson, Per G.P. (2006): Nuclear and mitochondrial sequence data reveal the major lineages of starlings, mynas and related taxa. "Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution" 41(2): 333-344. doi|10.1016/j.ympev.2006.05.007 (HTML abstract)

External links

* [http://www.montereybay.com/creagrus/rhabdornis.html Don Robertson's Bird Families of the World] : Rhabornises. Contains photos of all 3 species. Version of 2006-JAN-25. Retrieved 2007-JUL-20.
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/neon2rosell/375468310/ Flickr Field Guide: Birds of the World] : Photo of "Rhabdornis mystacalis". Retrieved 2007-JUL-19.