View source for Mimid

{{Short description|Family of birds}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
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{{Automatic taxobox
| name              = Mimids
| image             = Toxostoma longirostre - 2021.jpg
| image_caption     = [[Long-billed thrasher]]<br/>''Toxostoma longirostre''
| taxon             = Mimidae
| authority         = [[Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte|Bonaparte]], 1853
| subdivision_ranks = Genera
| subdivision       =
''[[Allenia]]''<br>
''[[Cinclocerthia]]''<br>
''[[Dumetella]]''<br>
''[[Margarops]]''<br>
''[[Melanoptila]]''<br>
''[[Melanotis]]''<br>
''[[Mimus]]''<br>
''[[Oreoscoptes]]''<br>
''[[Ramphocinclus]]''<br>
''[[Toxostoma]]''
}}
The '''mimids''' are the [[New World]] family of [[passerine]] birds, '''Mimidae''', that includes [[thrasher]]s, [[mockingbird]]s, [[trembler]]s, and the [[New World catbird]]s. As their name ([[Latin]] for "mimic") suggests, these [[bird]]s are notable for their vocalization, especially some species' remarkable ability to mimic a wide variety of birds and other sounds heard outdoors.  They are commonly referred to as '''mimic thrushes''' but are not, in fact, thrushes (which are members of family [[Turdidae]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/mimic-thrush|title=Mimic Thrush|website=encyclopedia.com|access-date=9 July 2023|year=2019}} From ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'', sixth ed. (originally published 2000)</ref>
==Description==
There are over 30 [[species]] of mimids in two larger and some ten small or [[monotypic]] [[genus|genera]]. They tend toward dull grays and browns in their appearance, though a few are black or blue-gray, and many have red, yellow, or white [[iris (anatomy)|irises]]. They range from 20 to 33 centimetres in length, and 36 to 56&nbsp;grams in weight.<ref name=EoB>{{cite book |editor=Forshaw, Joseph|author= McClure, H. Elliott|year=1991|title=Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds|publisher= Merehurst Press|location=London|pages= 183–184|isbn= 1-85391-186-0}}</ref> Many mimids have a rather [[thrush (bird)|thrush]]-like pattern: brown above, pale with dark streaks or spots below. They tend to have longer tails than thrushes (or the bigger [[wren]]s, which they also resemble) and longer bills that in many species curve downward.<ref name=c>Clement; Peter; [[Chris Perrins|Perrins, Christopher]] (2003). Mockingbirds. ''In:'' Perrins, Christopher (ed.): ''The Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds'': 534–535. Firefly Books. {{ISBN|1-55297-777-3}}</ref>
They have long, strong legs (for passerines) with which many species hop through undergrowth searching for [[arthropod]]s and fruits to eat. Their habitat varies from forest undergrowth to scrub, high-altitude grasslands, and deserts. The two [[trembler]]s live in the atypical habitat of [[rainforest]]s in the [[Lesser Antilles]], and the [[brown trembler]] has the particularly atypical behavior of foraging while clinging to tree trunks.<ref name=c/>
All known species build somewhat messy, bulky twig nests in dense growth, which are in most species on the ground or no more than 2 meters up. They usually lay 2 to 5 eggs that hatch in 12 or 13 days, which is also the length of time the chicks stay in the nest. Breeding usually starts in the spring or early in the rainy season, and many species can have two or even three broods per year. Most failures to fledge young are due to predation. Pairs often stay together for more than one breeding season.<ref name=c/>
==In the history of science==
{{Expand section|date=June 2008}}
Contrary to often-held belief, the ''[[Nesomimus]]'' mockingbirds may have played at least as great a role as [[Darwin's finches]] in inspiring [[Charles Darwin|Darwin's]] work on his theory of evolution.<ref>Curry, Robert L. (2003). [http://oikos.villanova.edu/Nesomimus/index.html Darwin and the mockingbirds of Galápagos.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901113345/http://oikos.villanova.edu/Nesomimus/index.html |date=1 September 2006 }}</ref>
== Systematics ==
===Outside the family===
[[Phylogenetic]] analyses have shown that mimids are most closely related to [[starling]]s.<ref name=s>[[Charles Sibley|Sibley, Charles Gald]] & Monroe, Burt L. Jr. (1990). ''Distribution and taxonomy of the birds of the world: A Study in Molecular Evolution''. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. {{ISBN|0-300-04969-2}}</ref><ref name=z>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}} {{PMID|16806992}} (HTML abstract)</ref> These and [[oxpecker]]s (and the [[Philippine creeper]]s if they are not outright but highly [[apomorph]]ic starlings) form a group of [[Muscicapoidea]] which originated probably in the [[Early Miocene]] – very roughly 25–20 [[mya (unit)|mya]]<ref>The seemingly precise dates of Zuccon et al. are not based on material evidence but on a crude estimate; a general Early Miocene age agrees with the phylogeny of other [[Passeri]] however.</ref> – somewhere in [[East Asia]].<ref name=z/> This is evidenced by the Asian-SW Pacific distribution of the most [[basal (biology)|basal]] starlings (and Philippine creepers) and the North American range of the basal mimids.
They are sometimes united with the starlings in the Sturnidae as a [[tribe (biology)|tribe]] '''Mimini''' as proposed by Sibley & Monroe (1990).<ref name=s/> This makes the expanded Sturnidae a rather noninformative group and is probably due to the methodological drawbacks of their [[DNA-DNA hybridization]] technique.
===Within the family===
The mockingbirds with some thrashers seem to form one major [[clade]], while the two other groups and the remaining thrashers seem to form another, but the [[Basal (phylogenetics)|basal]] branching pattern is not well resolved. The tremblers, again, are a [[monophyletic]] lineage. The latter, however, are embedded in a [[paraphyletic]] catbird-[[Caribbean]] thrasher assemblage which consists of many rather basal lineages.<ref>Barber, Brian R.; Martínez-Gómez, Juan E. & Peterson, A. Townsend (2004). Systematic position of the Socorro mockingbird ''Mimodes graysoni''. ''[[Journal of Avian Biology|J. Avian Biol.]]'' '''35''': 195–198. {{doi|10.1111/j.0908-8857.2004.03233.x}} (HTML abstract)</ref><ref>Hunt, Jeffrey S.; Bermingham, Eldredge; & Ricklefs, Robert E. (2001). Molecular systematics and biogeography of Antillean thrashers, tremblers, and mockingbirds (Aves: Mimidae). ''[[Auk (journal)|Auk]]'' '''118'''(1): 35–55. [[Digital Object Identifier|DOI]]:10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118[0035:MSABOA]2.0.CO;2 [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3793/is_200101/ai_n8930531 HTML fulltext without images]</ref>
For detailed information on the [[evolution]]ary relationships of the different mimid lineages, see their articles.
[[Mockingbird]]s:
* Genus ''[[Mimus]]'' – typical mockingbirds (some 10 species, includes ''Mimodes'')
* The former genus ''[[Nesomimus]]'', now part of ''Mimus''<ref>[http://www.aou.org/checklist/south.php3 American Ornithologists' Union, "Changes since 1 March 2005"]</ref> – mockingbirds of the [[Galápagos Islands]] (4 species)
* Genus ''[[Melanotis]]'' – blue mockingbirds (2 species)
[[New World catbird]]s:
* Genus ''[[Dumetella]]'' – grey catbird
* Genus ''[[Melanoptila]]'' – black catbird
[[Thrasher]]s:
* Genus ''[[Oreoscoptes]]'' – sage thrasher
* Genus ''[[Toxostoma]]'' – typical thrashers (10 species)
* Genus ''[[Ramphocinclus]]'' – white-breasted thrasher
* Genus ''[[Allenia]]'' – scaly-breasted thrasher (formerly in ''Margarops'')
* Genus ''[[Margarops]]'' – pearly-eyed thrasher
[[Trembler]]s
* Genus ''[[Cinclocerthia]]'' (2 species)
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
{{Wikispecies|Mimidae}}
{{Commons category|Mimidae}}
*[http://ibc.lynxeds.com/family/mockingbirds-thrashers-mimidae Mimid videos] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160412194840/http://ibc.lynxeds.com/family/mockingbirds-thrashers-mimidae |date=12 April 2016 }} on the Internet Bird Collection
{{Taxonbar|from=Q753221}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Birds of the Americas|*]]
[[Category:Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte]]