| Sharpbill | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Oxyruncidae Ridgway, 1906 |
| Genus: | Oxyruncus Temminck, 1820 |
| Species: | O. cristatus |
| Binomial name | |
| Oxyruncus cristatus Swainson, 1821 | |
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Thesharpbill (Oxyruncus cristatus) is a smallpasserine bird that is placed in its own familyOxyruncidae. It was formerly placed in the familyTityridae. Its range is from the mountainous areas of tropicalSouth America and southernCentral America (Panama andCosta Rica).
It inhabits the canopy of wet forest and feeds onfruit and someinvertebrates. It has an orange erectile crest, black-spotted yellowish underparts and scaling on the head and neck. As its name implies, it has a straight, pointed beak, which gives its common name.
Sharpbills are most commonly found in tall dense forests but occasionally venture to the forest edge. Their diet consists of primarily of fruit, but they will also take insects, hanging upside down in from twigs to obtain insectlarvae. They will also travel inmixed-species feeding flocks withovenbirds,tanagers,woodpeckers andcotingas. The breeding system employed by this species ispolygamous with closely grouped males displaying in from alek.[2] The nest of the sharpbill is built by the female and is a small cup built on a slender branch. Chicks are fed by regurgitation.
The genusOxyruncus was erected by the Dutch zoologistCoenraad Jacob Temminck in 1820.[3] The sharpbill wasdescribed in 1821 by the English naturalistWilliam Swainson under thebinomial nameOxyrhuncus cristatus with an "h" inserted into the name of the genus.[4][5] The wordOxyruncus is from the Ancient Greekoxus for "sharp" or "pointed" andrhunkhos "bill". The specific epithet is from the Latincristatus for "crested" or "plumed".[6]
The affinities of the sharpbill to other species has long puzzled ornithologists,[7] and this was only settled by the publication of large multilocus DNA sequencing studies.[8][9] The cladogram below shows the phylogenetic relationships of the sharpbill to other families in theparvorder Tyrannida. It is based on the study by Carl Oliveros and collaborators published in 2019 and the study by Michael Harvey and collaborators that was published in 2020.[8][9] The families and species numbers are from the list maintained by theInternational Ornithologists' Union (IOC).[10]
| Tyrannida |
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Foursubspecies are recognised:[10]
