Melanocharitidae

The Melanocharitidae, the berrypeckers and longbills, is a small bird family restricted to the forests of New Guinea. The family contains eleven species in four (sometimes three) genera. They are small songbirds with generally dull plumage but a range of body shapes.

==Taxonomy and systematics== The identification of the family Melanocharitidae was not known or suspected until the work of Sibley and Ahlquist on the taxonomy of birds using DNA–DNA hybridization The genera had been instead placed with other families. The two genera of berrypecker had been placed inside the flowerpecker family Dicaeidae, and the longbills were once considered to be honeyeaters (which they closely resemble). Sibley and Ahlquist placed the berrypeckers and longbill family close to the painted berrypeckers (Paramythiidae), sunbirds and flowerpeckers, but a 2002 study found them closer to the satinbirds (Cnemophilidae, a recent split from the birds-of-paradise).