Trembler

Tremblers
Brown trembler
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)

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 2-4 species in one genus, Cinclocerthia:

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, for example 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)

References

Media related to Cinclocerthia at Wikimedia Commons

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