Upucerthia | |
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Scale-throated earthcreeper (Upucerthia dumetaria) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Furnariidae |
Genus: |
Upucerthia I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1832 |
Type species | |
Upucerthia dumetaria
[1] Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1832
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Upucerthia is a genus of bird in the family Furnariidae.
Upucerthia is a genus of bird in the family Furnariidae. Established by French zoologist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1832, it contains four species known as earthcreepers. [2] Genetic studies done in the early 2000s indicated that the genus as it stood at that time was highly polyphyletic, with species representing four distinct clades. [3] As a result, a total of five former species were moved to other genera. The rock earthcreeper and the straight-billed earthcreeper were moved to the genus Ochetorhynchus. [2] [3] [4] The Bolivian earthcreeper and the Chaco earthcreeper were moved to the genus Tarphonomus, [2] [3] [5] and the striated earthcreeper was moved into the monotypic genus Geocerthia. [2] [3]
The genus name is a portmanteau of the genus names Upupa (for the hoopoes) and Certhia (for the treecreepers). [6]
The following are species recognized by the International Ornithologists' Union as being members of this genus. [2]
The Patagonian forest earthcreeper, described as a distinct species in 1900 but soon lumped as a subspecies of the scale-throated earthcreeper, was designated as a distinct species again in the early 2000s. This determination was based on differences in its morphology, song, breeding habitat, and migration patterns. [7]