Family of birds
Tityridae is family of suboscine passerine birds found in forest and woodland in the Neotropics. The 45 species in this family were formerly spread over the families Tyrannidae, Pipridae and Cotingidae ("see Taxonomy"). As yet, no widely accepted common name exists for the family, although tityras and allies and tityras, mourners and allies have been used. They are small to medium-sized birds. Under current classification, the family ranges in size from the buff-throated purpletuft, at and , to the masked tityra, at up to and . Most have relatively short tails and large heads.
Taxonomy and systematics.
The family Tityridae (as the subfamily Tityrinae) containing the genera "Tityra" and "Pachyramphus" was introduced by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1840.
Traditionally, the genus "Laniocera" was included in the family Tyrannidae, the genera "Iodopleura", "Laniisoma", "Tityra", "Pachyramphus" and "Xenopsaris" were included in the family Cotingidae, and "Schiffornis" was included in the family Pipridae. Three of these genera, "Tityra", "Pachyramphus" and "Xenopsaris", were later moved to Tyrannidae based on the morphology of their skull and syrinx.
The existence of the family Tityridae (although simply treated as a clade) was first proposed in 1989 based on the morphology of several syringeal and skeletal features. The existence of this family has later been confirmed by multiple studies involving both mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA. Evidence suggests there are two basal clades within this family, the first including the genera "Schiffornis", "Laniocera", and "Laniisoma" (with strong bootstrap support), and the second include "Iodopleura", "Tityra", "Xenopsaris", and "Pachyramphus" (with poor bootstrap support).
A molecular phylogenetic study of passerine families published in 2019 sampled species from five genera in Tityridae. The resulting tree indicates that if the family Tityridae is defined to include the genera "Oxyruncus", "Myiobius" and "Onychorhynchus" then it becomes paraphyletic: a clade containing the genera "Tityra" and "Schiffornis" is basal to a clade that contains the genera "Oxyruncus", "Myiobius", "Onychorhynchus" and the family Tyrannidae.
Species.
The family contains 46 species divided into 11 genera:
References.
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