From Opus

White-breasted Woodswallow
Photo by tcollins

Family: Artamidae

[edit] Description

Woodswallows.
An uniform family, occuring from Australia to Southeast and South Asia. They share:

• A squat silhouette
• A short tail
• Long pointed wings
• A conical broad-based blue-grey bill with a black tip
• Tracts of continuously growing powder-down feathers
• They eat mainly insects which are taken on wing

[edit] Taxonomy

Artamidae is a monotypic family in the Order Passeriformes.
It has sometimes been included in the Cracticidae.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Del Hoyo, J, A Elliott, and D Christie, eds. 2009. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 14: Bush-shrikes to Old World Sparrows. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8496553507

• List of references