Tremblers
Mimids
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Tremblers are a New World group of passerine birds related to mockingbirds and New World catbirds. Like these, they are in the Mimidae family.
There are 2 species in one genus, Cinclocerthia:
- Gray Trembler, Cinclocerthia gutturalis : The Grey Trembler is found only in Martinique and Saint Lucia.
- Brown Trembler, Cinclocerthia ruficauda : The Brown Trembler is found in the Lesser Antilles where it breeds on Saba, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica and St. Vincent. It formerly occurred on St. Eustatius. Northern birds from Guadeloupe northwards may represent a separate species (C. pavida) from those on Dominica and St. Vincent. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, and heavily degraded former forest.
Among the living birds, these are apparently most closely related to the Pearly-eyed Thrasher (Hunt et al. 2001, Barber et al. 2004).
Their common name comes from their peculiar behavior: if excited, they will show a much more exaggerated version of the wing-flicking also seen in other mimids, for example the Northern Mockingbirds. The tremblers do not just flick their wings, but shake their entire bodies in a trembling motion.
References
- Barber, Brian R.; Martínez-Gómez, Juan E. & Peterson, A. Townsend (2004): Systematic position of the Socorro mockingbird Mimodes graysoni. J. Avian Biol. 35: 195-198. doi:10.1111/j.0908-8857.2004.03233.x (HTML abstract)
- Hunt, Jeffrey S.; Bermingham, Eldredge; & Ricklefs, Robert E. (2001): Molecular systematics and biogeography of Antillean thrashers, tremblers, and mockingbirds (Aves: Mimidae). Auk 118(1): 35–55. DOI:10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118[0035:MSABOA]2.0.CO;2 HTML fulltext without images
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