Fiji’s most enigmatic bird, the Silktail, Lamprolia victoriae appears to have highly unexpected and peculiar taxonomic affinities.
Ernst Mayr, arguably the greatest ornithological taxonomist of the 20th century described the Silktail as “one of the most puzzling birds of the world”.
More than 60 years later, the systematic affinity of the monotypic Silktail remained an enigma. It has been proposed that it may be related to the birds-of-paradise, based on its iridescent plumage and structural similarities between Lamprolia and birds-of-paradise of the genera Ptiloris and Manucodia.
It has also been associated with Australian robins and fairy-wrens. And so, sooner rather than later its taxonomic affinities were going to be tested by examining DNA sequences.
This has now been done by Martin Irestedt and his coworkers and reported in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (48:1218-1222).
Their conclusion has surprised every one, the DNA data does not support any relationship with the birds-of-paradise but instead supports a sister relationship between the Silktail, and another species from the highlands of New Guinea, the Pygmy Drongo Chaetorhynchus papuensis.
Together this pair appears to be nestled into a close relationship with the fantails, Rhipidura. Neither of these species appear to be “dispersal-type” birds, both are sedentary inhabitants of the humid forest.
So the relationship is all the more puzzling.
Illustration of the Silktail by Chloe Talbot-Kelly
Another interesting conclusion from Martin Irestedt’s work was the possible divergence between the two is at a relatively ancient age about 20 million years ago, and points to an interesting dispersal event probably facilitated by the presence of intermittent island connections between Fiji and New Guinea along the Melanesian Arc.
Drongo, of course, is a well-used derogatory Australian slang for any sort or neer-do-well person – certainly not what one would like the Silktail to be associated with !!
Quite how the word has assumed its slang meaning and the relationship with the drongo Dicrurus sp. is not at all clear – a little Australian befuddlement in itself. So we need to quickly add that the Pygmy Drongo is regarded as senior and ancestral to all the other Drongos !