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Violet-backed hyliota
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Hyliotidae
Genus: Hyliota
Swainson, 1837

Hyliota is a genus of passerine bird. The taxonomic position of the genus has been a longstanding mystery. They have been formerly regarded as Old World warblers in the Sylviidae family, or related to the batises and wattle-eyes in the family Platysteiridae, bush-shrikes in the family Malaconotidae, or even Old-World flycatchers in the family Muscicapidae. An analysis of the mitochondrial DNA of the genus and possible relatives found they have no close relatives and are basal in the clade Passerida. They are now often regarded as a family in their own right, Hyliotidae.[1]

Hyliota contains the following species:


  1. ^ Fuchs, Jérôme et al. (2006). "The African warbler genus Hyliota as a lost lineage in the Oscine songbird tree: Molecular support for an African origin of the Passerida". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 39 (1): 186–197. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.07.020.