Trembler

Tremblers are a New World group of passerine birds related to mockingbirds and New World catbirds. Like these, they are in the family Mimidae. There are 2-4 species in one genus, Cinclocerthia, which is endemic to the Lesser Antilles:

  • Grey trembler (Martinique trembler), Cinclocerthia (gutturalis) gutturalis
    • Saint Lucia trembler, Cinclocerthia (gutturalis) macrorhyncha
  • (Southern) brown trembler, Cinclocerthia (ruficauda) ruficauda
    • Northern brown trembler, Cinclocerthia (ruficauda) tremula

Tremblers
Brown trembler (Cinclocerthia ruficauda)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Mimidae
Genus: Cinclocerthia
G.R. Gray, 1840
Species

Cinclocerthia gutturalis
Cinclocerthia ruficauda
(but see text)

Synonyms

Buleites Gistl, 1848
Stenorhynchus Gould, 1838 (non Lamarck, 1818: preoccupied)

Among the living birds, they are apparently most closely related to the pearly-eyed thrasher.[1]

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 such as the northern mockingbirds. The tremblers do not just flick their wings, but shake their entire bodies in a trembling motion.

Footnotes
  1. Hunt et al. (2001), Barber et al. (2004)
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References

Media related to Cinclocerthia at Wikimedia Commons

  • 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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