Class Aves Suborder Passeri | Phylum Chordata Order Passeriformes Rank Family | |
 | ||
Similar Bushshrike, White‑crested helmetshrike, Wattle‑eye, Prionops, Wood hoopoe | ||
The Prionopidae are a family uniting some smallish to mid-sized songbird species. One group, the helmetshrikes, were included with the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, later on split between several presumably closely related groups such as bushshrikes (Malaconotidae) and cuckooshrikes (Campephagidae), but are now considered sufficiently distinctive to be separated from that group as the family Prionopidae. The Prionopidae and the two former are part of a group which is generally rather homogenous but also includes the diverse vangas. The Campephagidae are a bit more distinct.
Contents
Description and ecology
This is an African group of species which are found in scrub or open woodland. They are similar in feeding habits to shrikes, hunting insects and other small prey from a perch on a bush or tree.
Although similar in build to the shrikes, these tend to be colourful species with the distinctive crests or other head ornaments, such as wattles, from which they get their name.
Helmetshrikes are noisy and sociable birds, some of which breed in loose colonies. They lay 2–4 eggs in neat, well-hidden nests.
Systematics
As the relationships of the shrike-like birds are increasingly disentangled, the Prionopidae (in the strict sense) appear to form an evolutionary radiation with the philentomas, vangas, and some other members of the "shrike-like" group, such as the flycatcher-shrikes and shrike-flycatchers. How this radiation will eventually be subdivided taxonomically has not been resolved yet; various proposals exist. One proposed approach is to include the helmetshrike group and philentomas as subfamilies within an expanded Vangidae alongside the bushshrikes and the core of the Platysteiridae.
