Mohouidae
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Mohouidae Whiteheads
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
- Year-round
- Breeding
- Non-breeding
Introduction
These energetic small songbirds flit about forest and scrub habitats, usually in groups and sometimes hanging upside down, in search of insect prey. Only recent molecular analyses have revealed how distinctive and ancient their ancestry is. Like so many birds in the region, two of the three species are cooperative breeders. Endemics to New Zealand, the mohouids have long contended with being the sole hosts of an endemic brood-parasitic cuckoo, but it is anthropogenic changes, including the clearing of land and depredations of introduced stoats and rats, that have caused dramatic declines in their populations and constrictions of their ranges.
Habitat
Mohouids live mainly in native forest, from sea level to high-elevation montane scrub.
Diet and Foraging
These birds feed mainly on insects and other small arthropods, but also take fruit and seeds. They forage mainly by gleaning from leaves and twigs or by probing holes and crevices in bark and branches.
Breeding
Mohouids are monogamous with biparental care. The Whitehead Mohoua albicilla and Yellowhead M. ochrocephala are cooperative breeders, with Whiteheads having up to six helpers attending a nest. Nests, built by females, are deep cups made of rootlets, tendrils, leaves, grasses, and bark. The outside of the nest is covered with spiderwebs, and the inside is lined with moss, wool, feathers, and bark. The Whitehead and Pipipi M. novaeseelandiae nest close to the ground in small trees or shrubs, placing their nests in the fork of a branch or tangle of vines, whereas the Yellowhead nests in a cavity in live or dead trees. Female mohouids lay 2 to 4 eggs; they alone incubate, but are fed by the males at times. Both male and female, and any helpers that are present, help to feed nestlings. Incubation takes about 19 to 21 days, and the chicks fledge after about 20 to 22 days in the nest. The fledglings are fed for at least a few days, but for several weeks in the noncooperative Pipipi.
Conservation Status
Habitat loss and the effects of introduced predators are the major threats facing the single mohouid species (33%) that is of conservation concern (1 EN). The endangered Yellowhead experienced rapid declines following logging and the introduction of stoats and rats to the South Island. The Pipipi and Whitehead, which are still widely distributed across the South and North Islands, respectively, are not at immediate risk although they appear to be declining.
Systematics History
Mohouidae is part of the super family Corvoidea of oscine passerines. Mohouids have long been considered to be part of the whistlers (Pachycephalidae), on the basis of both DNA/DNA hybridization work and morphology, but much recent work investigating the relationships and evolutionary history of Corvoidea has shown that they are only very distantly related to the whistlers. Mohouidae instead appears to represent an ancient lineage that split off early from the rest of Corvoidea, and does not appear to have any strongly supported close relationship to any single family in the clade (Norman et al. 2009, Jønsson et al. 2011, Aidala et al. 2013, Aggerbeck et al. 2014).
Conservation Status
Least Concern |
66.7%
|
---|---|
Near Threatened |
33.3%
|
Vulnerable |
0%
|
Endangered |
0%
|
Critically Endangered |
0%
|
Extinct in the Wild |
0%
|
Extinct |
0%
|
Not Evaluated |
0%
|
Data Deficient |
0%
|
Unknown |
0%
|
Data provided by IUCN (2024) Red List. More information