Berrypeckers and Longbills: Family Melanocharitidae

Berrypeckers and Longbills are a small family of birds native to the humid montane regions of New Guinea. As their name suggests, Berrypeckers are frugivorous, eating mainly berries and other fruit while supplementing their diet with insects. Longbills have an equally descriptive name, and an equally unsurprising diet made up of mostly insects. All birds in this family are fairly drab in color and only a few species show any sexual dimorphism, where one sex is brighter or more colorful than the other.

Nesting and Breeding

Flowerpeckers and Longbills are generally monogamus and build impressive cup shaped nests, made out of ferns and decorated with lichens. Both the male and female help to raise and feed the chicks, but the female works alone to build and decorate the nest. Men don't really understand the subtleties involved in decorating a nest anyway, right?

Taxonomy

Due to their appearance and habits, these birds were, for a long time considered closely related to Flowerpeckers. Thanks to the analysis of their DNA we now know that these birds are not related to Flowerpeckers, but instead evolved similar characteristics based on their diet and habitat. This process is called convergent evolution.

Now that that is sorted out, the problem remains as to where exactly to place them on the tree of life. Ornithologists are still working on exactly where they are placed but agree that they are a part of the "Core Corvoidea" group. A group of birds that radiated and evolved in the Australo-Papuan region of Earth. Closely related families include the Satinbirds and the New Zealand Wattlebirds. There are 3 genera and only 12 species of Berrypeckers and Longbills. Genera include

Genus Melanocharis
Genus Toxorhamphus
Genus Oedistoma