Mohoua

Mohoua is a small genus of three bird species endemic to New Zealand. The scientific name is taken from mohua – the Māori name for the yellowhead.[1] Their taxonomic placement has presented problems: They have typically been placed in the whistler family, Pachycephalidae, but in 2013 it was established that they are best placed in their own family, Mohouidae.[2]

Mohoua
Whitehead (Mohoua albicilla)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Mohouidae
Mathews, 1946
Genus: Mohoua
Lesson, 1837

All three species display some degree of sexual dimorphism in terms of size, with the males being the larger of the two sexes.[3] Mohoua are gregarious (more so outside the breeding season) and usually forage in groups. They also forage in mixed species flocks at times, frequently forming the nucleus of such flocks.[1] Social organization and behaviour is well documented for all three Mohoua species; cooperative breeding has been observed in all three species and is common in the Whitehead and Yellowhead.[1] The three species of this genus are the sole hosts for the long-tailed cuckoo which acts as a brood parasite upon them, pushing their eggs out of the nest and laying a single one of its own in their place so that they take no part in incubation of their eggs or in raising their young.[3]

Species
  • Whitehead, Mohoua albicilla – (Lesson, 1830)
  • Pipipi or New Zealand brown creeper, Mohoua novaeseelandiae – (Gmelin, 1789)
  • Yellowhead, Mohoua ochrocephala – (Gmelin, 1789)
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References
  1. "Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds"; Volume 7, edited by Peter Higgins, OUP, 2000
  2. Zachary Aidala et al. Phylogenetic relationships of the genus Mohoua, endemic hosts of New Zealand’s obligate brood parasitic Long-tailed Cuckoo (Eudynamys taitensis). Journal of Ornithology, published online June, 2013; doi: 10.1007/s10336-013-0978-8
  3. Barrie Heather and Hugh Robertson, "The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand" (revised edition), Viking, 2005
  • Del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Christie D. (editors). (2007). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 12: Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-84-96553-42-2


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