Rhagologidae – Mottled Berryhunter

The Rhagologidae is a passerine family having just one genus, which contains just one species – Mottled Berryhunter or Mottled Whistler Rhagologus leucostigma. Its relationships with other passerines are unclear, but it is most likely related to the woodswallows, boatbills and butcherbirds. It is monotypic within the genus Rhagologus and family Rhagologidae. Only recently has molecular systematics identified this bird as belonging to a distinct clade all its own, quite distantly related to the whistlers that share its common name.

Mottled Berryhunter Rhagologus leucostigma – ©Dubi Shapiro

It is found in the New Guinea Highlands, where its natural habitat is lower or mid, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, where it can often be overlooked, being revealed by frequent mist-net captures rather than direct observations of birds in the field.

Its song has the cadence of a thrush but the notes have the whipped, ringing quality that characterises the vocalisations of many corvoids. Given its new status as a monotypic family, it will no doubt be targeted by many more birders, which should lead to more being discovered about its life and habits.

It is brown with pale mottling on the underparts and light streaking on the head and back. It is rusty cheeked, under the base of the tail and the edging to the wing. Eastern males are more greyish and much less strongly patterned. It is somewhat similar to the unrelated Spotted Berrypecker Rhamphocharis piperata, which is somewhat smaller. Its song, is a short, up-and-down whistled phrase.